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AMERICA'S  NEGLECT  OF  WHITMAN. 

[Oliver  Elton,  in  the  London  Academy.] 

Could  there  be  a  greater,  and  apparently  more  dismal,  paradox  than 
the  sight  of  the  seer  of  democracy  sitting  serene  under  the  total  neglect 
of  the  democracy  ?  If  anything  could  bely  the  faith  of  the  "  Demo 
cratic  Vistas,"  if  anything  could  make  one  think  the  loud  energetic 
civilization  of  America  nothing  but  a  gigantic  imposture,  it  is  the 
spectacle  of  the  only  great  living  American  poet  dependent  in  his  old 
age  upon  the  sympathy  —  and  at  one  moment  almost  upon  the  main 
tenance  —  of  foreign  friends.  And  yet  he  keeps  his  faith  in  the  faith 
less  people  unshaken,  for  it  is  not  at  the  mercy  of  personal  neglect  or 
personal  discomfort  ;  and,  if  he  is  right  in  his  robust  belief,  surely  the 
solution  of  the  paradox  lies  in  the  meaning  of  that  much  -abused  word 
the  "  people."  The  "  people  "  in  whom  his  confidence  burns  so  un- 
quenchably  are  not  the  rich  people,  not  the  millions  of  wire-pullers  and 
place-hunters,  not  the  spurious  elite  of  culture,  but  the  mass  of  the 
people,  who  know  little  of  Whitman  and  his  books,  or  of  any  books, 
who  labor  obscurely,  manfully,  and  restlessly,  who  represent  the  vast 
sum-total  of  energy  comparable  to  the  energies  of  nature  herself,  —  the 
mass  of  the  people  whose  force  and  fertility  are  independent  of  all 
possible  vicissitudes  in  institutions. 


aJfr^^ 


MEMORANDA. 


DEMOCRATIC 


VISTAS. 


Washington,  D.  C. 

1871. 

See  ADVERTISEMENT  at  end  of  this  Volume, 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1870,  by 

WALT  WHITMAN, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


Electrotyped  by  SMITH  &  McDoucAL,  82  Beekman  Street,  New  York. 


DEMOCRATIC    VISTAS. 


MERICA,  filling  the  present  with  greatest  deeds 
and  problems,  cheerfully  accepting  the  past, 
including  Feudalism,  (as,  indeed,  the  present  is  but 
the  legitimate  birth  of  the  past,  including  feudalism,) 
counts,  as  I  reckon,  for  her  justification  and  success, 
(for  who,  as  yet,  dare  claim  success?)  almost  entirely 
on  the  future.  Nor  is  that  hope  unwarranted.  To-day, 
ahead,  though  dimly  yet,  we  see,  in  vistas,  a  copious, 
sane,  gigantic  offspring. 

For  our  New  World  I  consider  far  less  important  for 
what  it  has  done,  or  what  it  is,  than  for  results  to  come. 
Sole  among  nationalities,  These  States  have  assumed 
the  task  to  put  in  forms  of  lasting  power  and  practi 
cality,  on  areas  of  amplitude  rivaling  the  operations  of 
the  physical  kosmos,  the  moral  and  political  specula 
tions  of  ages,  long,  long  deferred,  the  Democratic  Re 
publican  principle,  and  the  theory  of  development  and 
perfection  by  voluntary  standards,  and  self-suppliance. 
Who  else,  indeed,  except  the  United  States,  in  history, 
so  far,  have  accepted  in  unwitting  faith,  and,  as  we  now 
see,  stand,  act  upon,  and  go  security  for,  these  things  ? 

But  let  me  strike  at  once  the  key-note  of  my  purpose 
in  the  following  strain.  First  premising  that,  though 
passages  of  it  have  been  written  at  widely  different 
times,  (it  is,  in  fact,  a  collection  of  memoranda,  perhaps 
for  future  designers,  comprehenders,)  and  though  it 
may  be  open  to  the  charge  of  one  part  contradicting 
another — for  there  are  opposite  sides  to  the  great  ques 
tion  of  Democracy,  as  to  every  great  question — I  feel 


4  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

the  parts  harmoniously  blended  in  my  own  realization 
and  convictions,  and  present  them  to  be  read  only  in 
such  oneness,  each  page  modified  and  tempered  by  the 
others.  Bear  in  mind,  too,  that  they  are  not  the  result 
of  studying  up  in  political  economy,  but  of  the  ordinary 
sense,  observing,  wandering  among  men,  These  States, 
these  stirring  years  of  war  and  peace.  I  will  not  gloss 
over  the  appalling  dangers  of  universal  suffrage  in  the 
United  States.  In  fact,  it  is  to  admit  and  face  these 
dangers  I  am  writing.  To  him  or  her  within  whose 
thought  rages  the  battle,  advancing,  retreating,  be 
tween  Democracy's  convictions,  aspirations,  and  the 
People's  crudeness,  vice,  caprices,  I  mainly  write  this 
book. 

I  shall  use  the  words  America  and  Democracy  as  con 
vertible  terms.  Not  an  ordinary  one  is  the  issue.  The 
United  States  are  destined  either  to  surmount  the  gor 
geous  history  of  Feudalism,  or  else  prove  the  mos^  tre 
mendous  failure  of  time.  Not  the  least  doubtful  am  I 
on  any  prospects  of  their  material  success.  The  trium 
phant  future  of  their  business,  geographic,  and  produc 
tive  departments,  on  larger  scales  and  in  more  varieties 
than  ever,  is  certain.  In  those  respects  the  Republic 
must  soon  (if  she  does  not  already)  outstrip  all  ex 
amples  hitherto  afforded,  and  dominate  the  world.* 


*  "  From  a  territorial  area  of  less  than  nine  hundred  .thou 
sand  square  miles,  the  Union  has  expanded  into  over  four  mil 
lions  and  a  half — fifteen  times  larger  than  that  of  Great  Britain 
and  France  combined — with  a  shore-line,  including  Alaska,  equal 
to  the  entire  circumference  of  the  earth,  and  with  a  domain 
within  these  lines  far  wider  than  that  of  the  Romans  in  their 
proudest  days  of  conquest  and  renown.  With  a  river,  lake,  and 
coastwise  commerce  estimated  at  over  two  thousand  millions  of 
dollars  per  year ;  with  a  railway  traffic  of  four  to  six  thousand 
millions  per  year,  and  the  annual  domestic  exchanges  of  the 
country  running  up  to  nearly  ten  thousand  millions  per  year  ; 
with  over  two  thousand  millions  of  dollars  invested  in  manufac 
turing,  mechanical,  and  mining  industry  ;  with  over  five  hun 
dred  millions  of  acres  of  land  in  actual  occupancy,  valued,  with 
their  appurtenances,  at  over  seven  thousand  millions  of  dollars, 
and  producing  annually  crops  valued  at  over  three  thousand  mil 
lions  of  dollars  ;  with  a  realm  which,  if  the  density  of  Belgium's 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  5 

Admitting  all  this,  with  the  priceless  value  of  our 
political  institutions,  general  suffrage  (and  cheerfully 
acknowledging  the  latest,  widest  opening  of  the 
doors,)  I  say  that,  far  deeper  than  these,  what  finally 
and  only  is  to  make  of  our  Western  World  a  National 
ity  superior  to  any  hitherto  known,  and  outtopping 
the  past,  must  be  vigorous,  yet  unsuspected  Litera 
tures,  perfect  personalities  and  sociologies,  original, 
transcendental,  and  expressing  (what,  in  highest  sense, 
are  not  yet  expressed  at  all,)  Democracy  and  the  Mod 
ern.  WTith  these,  and  out  of  these,  I  promulge  new 
races  of  Teachers,  and  of  perfect  Women,  indispen 
sable  to  endow  the  birth-stock  of  a  New  World.  For 
Feudalism,  caste,  the  Ecclesiastic  traditions,  though 
palpably  retreating  from  political  institutions,  still  hold 
essentially,  by  their  spirit,  even  in  this  country,  entire 
possession  of  the  more  important  fields,  indeed  the 
very  subsoil,  of  education,  and  of  social  standards  and 
Literature. 

I  say  that  Democracy  can  never  prove  itself  beyond 
cavil,  until  it  founds  and  luxuriantly  grows  its  own 
forms  of  arts,  poems,  schools,  theology,  displacing  all 
that  exists,  or  that  has  been  produced  anywhere  in  the 
past,  under  opposite  influences. 

It  is  curious  to  me  that  while  so  many  voices,  pens, 
minds,  in  the  press,  lecture-rooms,  in  our  Congress, 
&c.,  are  discussing  intellectual  topics,  pecuniary  dan 
gers,  legislative  problems,  the  suffrage,  tariff  and  labor 
questions,  and  the  various  business  and  benevolent 
needs  of  America,  with  propositions,  remedies,  often 
worth  deep  attention,  there  is  one  need,  a  hiatus,  and 
the  profoundest,  that  no  eye  seems  to  perceive,  no 
voice  to  state.  Our  fundamental  want  to-day  in  the 
United  States,  with  closest,  amplest  reference  to  pres- 


population  were  possible,  would  be  vast  enough  to  include  all  the 
present  inhabitants  of  the  world ;  and  with  equal  rights  guaran 
teed  to  even  the  poorest  and  humblest  of  our  forty  millions  of 
people — we  can,  with  a  manly  pride  akin  to  that  which  distin 
guished  the  palmiest  days  of  'Rome,  claim,"  &c.,  &c.,  &c.  —  Vice- 
President  Coif  ax's  fipccch,  July  4,  1070. 


6  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

ent  conditions,  and  to  the  future,  is  of  a  class,  and  the 
clear  idea  of  a  class,  of  native  Authors,  Literatuses,  far 
different,  far  higher  in  grade  than  any  yet  known, 
sacerdotal,  modern,  fit  to  cope  wi'h  our  occasions, 
lands,  permeating  the  whole  mass  of  American  men 
tality,  taste,  belief,  breathing  into  it  a  new  breath  of 
life,  giving  it  decision,  affecting  politics  far  more  than 
the  popular  superficial  suffrage,  with  results  inside 
and  underneath  the  elections  of  Presidents  or  Con 
gresses,  radiating,  begetting  appropriate  teachers  and 
schools,  manners,  costumes,  and,  as  its  grandest  re 
sult,  accomplishing,  (what  neither  the  schools  nor  the 
churches  and  their  clergy  have  hitherto  accomplished, 
and  without  which  this  nation  will  no  more  stand,  per 
manently,  soundly,  than  a  house  will  stand  without  a 
substratum,)  a  religious  and  moral  character  beneath 
the  political  and  productive  and  intellectual  bases  of 
The  States.  For  know  you  not,  dear,  earnest  reader, 
that  the  people  of  our  land  may  all  know  how  to  read 
and  write,  and  may  all  possess  the  right  to  vote — and 
yet  the  main  things  may  be  entirely  lacking  ? — (and  this 
to  supply  or  suggest  .them.) 

Viewed,  to-day,  from  a  point  of  view  sufiiciently  over 
arching,  the  problem  of  humanity  all  over  the  civilized 
world  is  social  and  religious,  and  is  to  be  finally  met 
and  treated  by  literature.  The  priest  departs,  the  di 
vine  Literatus  comes.  Never  was  anything  more  wanted 
than,  to-day,  and  here  in  The  States,  the  Poet  of  the 
Modern  is  wanted,  or  the  great  Literatus  of  the  Mod 
ern.  At  all  times,  perhaps,  the  central  point  in  any 
nation,  and  that  whence  it  is  itself  really  swayed  the 
most,  and  whence  it  sways  others,  is  its  national  litera 
ture,  especially  its  archetypal  poems.  Above  all  previ 
ous  lands,  a  great  original  literature  is  surely  to  be 
come  the  justification  and  reliance,  (in  some  respects 
the  sole  reliance,)  of  American  Democracy. 

Few  are  aware  how  the  great  literature  penetrates 
all,  gives  hue  to  all,  shapes  aggregates  and  individuals, 
and,  after  subtle  ways,  with  irresistible  power,  con 
structs,  sustains,  demolishes  at  will.  Why  tower,  in 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  7 

reminiscence,  above  all  tho  old  nations  of  the  earth,  (wo 
special  lands,  petty  in  themselves,  yet  inexpressibly 
gigantic,  beautiful,  columnar  ?  Immortal  Judah  liver, 
and  Greece  immortal  lives,  in  a  couple  of  poems. 

Nearer  than  this.  It  is  not  generally  realized,  but  it 
is  true,  as  the  genius  of  Greece,  and  all  the  sociology, 
personality,  politics  and  religion  of  those  wonderful 
states,  resided  in  their  literature  or  esthetics,  that  what 
was  afterwards  the  main  support  of  European  chivalry, 
the  feudal,  ecclesiastical,  dynastic  world  over  there, 
forming  its  osseous  structure,  holding  it  together  fcr 
hundreds,  thousands  of  years,  preserving  its  flesh  and 
bloom,  giving  it  form,  decision,  rounding  it  out,  and 
so  saturating  it  in  the  conscious  and  unconscious  blood, 
breed,  belief,  and  intuitions  of  men,  that  it  still  pre 
vails  powerfully  to  this  day,  in  defiance  of  the  mighty 
changes  of  time,  was  its  literature,  permeating  to  the 
very  marrow,  especially  that  major  part,  its  enchant 
ing  songs,  ballads,  and  poems.* 

To  the  osteiit  of  the  senses  and  eyes,  I  know,  the  in 
fluences  which  stamp  the  world's  history  are  wars,  up 
risings  or  downfalls  of  dynasties,  changeful  movements 
of  trade,  important  inventions,  navigation,  military  or 
civil  governments,  advent  of  powerful  personalities, 
conquerors,  &c.  These  of  course  play  their  part  ; 
yet,  it  may  be,  a  single  new  thought,  imagination,  prin 
ciple,  even  literary  style,  fit  for  the  time,  put  in  shape 
by  some  great  Literatus,  and  projected  among  man- 


*  See,  for  hereditaments,  specimens,  Walter  Scott's  Border  JMin- 
strelsy,  Percy's  Collection,  Ellis's  Early  English  Metrical  Ro 
mances,  the  European  Continental  Poems  of  Walter  of  A  quit  a- 
nia,  and  the  Nibelungen,  of  pagan  stock,  but  monkish-feudal 
redaction  ;  the  history  of  the  Troubadours,  by  Fauriel ;  even  the 
far,  far-back  cumbrous  old  Hindu  epics,  as  indicating  the  Asian 
eggs,  out  of  which  European  chivalry  was  hatched  ;  Ticknor's 
chapters  on  the  Cid,  and  on  the  Spanish  poems  and  poets  of  Cal- 
deron's  time.  Then  always,  and,  of  course,  as  the  superbest, 
poetic  culmination-expression  of  Feudalism,  the  Shakspearean 
dramas,  in  the  attitudes,  dialogue,  characters,  &c.,  of  the  princes, 
lords  and  gentlemen,  the  pervading  atmosphere,  the  implied 
and  expressed  standard  of  manners,  the  high  port  and  proud 
ctomach,  the  regal  embroidery  of  ctylo,  £c. 


8  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

kind,  may  duly  cause  changes,  growths,  removals, 
greater  than  the  longest  and  bloodiest  war,  or  the 
most  stupendous  merely  political,  dynastic,  or  com 
mercial  overturn. 

In  short,  as,  though  it  may  not  be  realized,  it  is 
strictly  true,  that  a  few  first-class  poets,  philosophs, 
and  authors,  have  substantially  settled  and  given  status 
to  the  entire  religion,  education,  law,  sociology,  &c.,  of 
the  hitherto  civilized  world,  by  tinging  and  often  crea 
ting  the  atmospheres  out  of  which  they  have  arisen, 
such  also  must  stamp,  and  more  than  ever  stamp,  the 
interior  and  real  Democratic  construction  of  this  Ameri 
can  continent,  to-day,  and  days  to  come. 

Remember  also  this  fact  of  difference,  that,  while 
through  the  antique  and  through  the  mediaeval  ages, 
highest  thoughts  and  ideals  realized  themselves,  and 
their  expression  made  its  way  by  other  arts,  as  much 
as,  or  even  more  than  by,  technical  literature,  (not  open 
to  the  mass  of  persons,  nor  even  to  the  majority  of 
eminent  persons,)  such  literature  in  our  day  and  for 
current  purposes,  is  not  only  more .  eligible  than  all  the 
other  arts  put  together,  but  has  become  the  only  gen 
eral  means  of  morally  influencing  the  world.  Paint 
ing,  sculpture,  and  the  dramatic  theatre,  it  would 
seem,  no  longer  play  an  indispensable  or  even  im 
portant  part  in  the  workings  and  mediumship  of  in 
tellect,  utility,  or  even  high  esthetics.  Architecture 
remains,  doubtless  with  capacities,  and.  a  real  future. 
Then  music,  the  combiner,  nothing  more  spiritual,  noth 
ing  more  sensuous,  a  god,  yet  completely  human,  ad 
vances,  prevails,  holds  highest  place;  supplying  in  cer 
tain  wants  and  quarters  what  nothing  else  could  supply. 
Yet,  in  the  civilization  of  to-day  it  is  undeniable  that, 
over  all  the  arts,  literature  dominates,  serves  beyond 
all — shapes  the  character  of  church  and  school — or,  at 
any  rate,  is  capable  of  doing  so.  Including  the  litera 
ture  of  science,  its  scope  is  indeed  unparalleled. 

Before  proceeding  further,  it  were  perhaps  well  to 
discriminate  on  certain  points.  Literature  tills  its 
crops  in  many  fields,  and  some  may  flourish,  while 
others  lag.  "What  I  say  in  these  Vistas  has  its  main 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  9 

bearing  on  Imaginative  Literature,  especially  Poetry, 
the  stock  of  all.  In  the  department  of  Science,  and  the 
specialty  of  Journalism,  there  appear,  in  These  States, 
promises,  perhaps  fulfilments,  of  highest  earnestness, 
reality,  and  life.  These,  of  course,  are  modern..  But 
in  the  region  of  imaginative,  spinal  and  essential  attri 
butes,  something  equivalent  to  creation  is  imperatively 
demanded.  For  not  only  is  it  not  enough  that  the 
new  blood,  new  frame  of  Democracy  shall  be  vivified 
and  held  together  merely  by  political  means,  superficial 
suffrage,  legislation,  &c.,  but  it  is  clear  to  me  that,  un 
less  it  goes  deeper,  gets  at  least  as  firm  and  as  warm  a 
hold  in  men's  hearts,  emotions  and  belief,  as,  in  their 
days,  Feudalism  or  Ecclesiasticism,  and  inaugurates  its 
own  perennial  sources,  welling  from  the  centre  forever, 
its  strength  will  be  defective,  its  growth  doubtful,  and 
its  main  charm  wanting. 

I  suggest,  therefore,  the  possibility,  should  some  two 
or  three  really  original  American  poets,  (perhaps  artists 
or  lecturers,)  arise,  mounting  the  horizon  like  planets, 
stars  of  the  first  magnitude,  that,  from  their  eminence, 
fusing  contributions,  races,  far  localities,  &c.,  together, 
they  would  give  more  compaction  and  more  moral  iden 
tity,  (the  quality  to-day  most  needed,)  to  These  States, 
than  all  its  Constitutions,  legislative  and  judicial  ties, 
and  all  its  hitherto  political, 'warlike,  or  materialistic 
experiences.  As,  for  instance,  there  could  hardly  hap 
pen  anything  that  would  more  serve  The  States,  with 
all  their  variety  of  origins,  their  diverse  climes,  cities, 
standards,  &c.,  than  possessing  an  aggregate  of  heroes, 
characters,  exploits,  sufferings,  prosperity  or  misfor 
tune,  glory  or  disgrace,  common  to  all,  typical  of  all — 
no  less,  but  even  greater  would  it  be  to  possess  the 
aggregation  of  a  cluster  of  mighty  poets,  artists,  teach 
ers,  fit  for  us,  national  expressers,  comprehending  and 
effusing  for  the  men  and  women  of  The  States,  what  is 
universal,  native,  common  to  all,  inland  and  seaboard, 
northern  and  southern.  The  historians  say  of  ancient 
Greece,  with  her  ever-jealous  autonomies,  cities,  and 
states,  that  the  only  positive  unity  she  ever  owned  or 
received,  was  the  sad  unity  of  a  common  subjection,  at 


10  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

the  last,  to  foreign  conquerors.  Subjection,  aggrega 
tion  of  that  sort,  is  impossible  to  America  ;  but  the  fear 
of  conflicting  and  irreconcilable  interiors,  and  the  lack 
of  a  common  skeleton,  knitting  all  close,  continually 
haunts  me.  Or,  if  it  does  not,  nothing  is  plainer  than 
the  need,  a  long  period  to  come,  of  a  fusion  of  The 
States  into  the  only  reliable  identity,  the  moral  and 
artistic  one.  For,  I  say,  the  true  nationality  of  The 
States,  the  genuine  union,  when  we  come  to  a  mortal 
crisis,  is,  and  is  to  be,  after  all,  neither  the  written  law, 
nor,  (as  is  generally  supposed,)  either  self-interest,  or 
common  pecuniary  or  material  objects — but  the  fervid 
and  tremendous  IDEA,  melting  everything  else  with  re 
sistless  heat,  and  solving  all  lesser  and  definite  distinc 
tions  in  vast,  indefinite,  spiritual,  emotional  power. 

It  may  be  claimed,  (and  I  admit  the  weight  of  the 
claim,)  that  common  and  general  worldly  prosperity, 
and  a  populace  well-to-do,  and  with  all  life's  material 
comforts,  is  the  main  thing,  and  is  enough.  It  may  be 
arg'ued  that  our  Republic  is,  in  performance,  really 
enacting  to-day  the  grandest  arts,  poems,  &c.,  by  beat 
ing  up  the  wilderness  into  fertile  farms,  and  in  her 
railroads,  ships,  machinery,  &c.  And  it  may  be  asked, 
Are  these  not  better,  indeed,  for  America,  than  any 
utterances  even  of  greatest  rhapsode,  artist,  or  literatus  ? 

I  too  hail  those  achievements  with  pride  and  joy : 
then  answer  that  the  soul  of  man  will  not  with  such 
only — nay,  not  with  such  at  all — be  finally  satisfied ;  but 
needs  what,  (standing  on  those  and  on  all  things,  as  the 
feet  stand  on  the  ground,)  is  addressed  to  the  loftiest,  to 
itself  alone. 

Out  of  such  considerations,  such  truths,  arise*  for 
treatment  in  these  Vistas  the  important  question  of 
Character,  of.  an  American  stock-personality,  with 
Literatures  and  Arts  for  outlets  and  return-expres 
sions,  and,  of  course,  to  correspond,  within  outlines 
common  to  all.  To  these,  the  main  affair,  the  thinkers 
of  the  United  States,  in  general  so  acute,  have  either 
given  feeblest  attention,  or  have  remained,  and  re 
main,  in  a  state  of  somnolence. 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  11 

For  my  part,  I  would  alarm  and  caution  even  the 
political  and  business  reader,  and  to  the  utmost  extent, 
against  the  prevailing  delusion  that  the  establishment 
of  free  political  institutions,  and  plentiful  intellectual 
smartness,  with  general  good  order,  physical  plenty,  in 
dustry,  &c.,  (desirable  and  precious  advantages  as  they 
all  are,)  do,  of  themselves,  determine  and  yield  to  our 
experiment  of  Democracy  the  fruitage  of  success.  With 
such  advantages  at  present  fully,  or  almost  fully,  pos 
sessed — the  Union  just  issued,  victorious,  from  the 
struggle  with  the  only  foes  it  need  ever  fear,  (namely, 
those  within  itself,  the  interior  ones,)  and  with  unpre 
cedented  materialistic  advancement — Society,  in  These 
States,  is  cankered,  crude,  superstitious,  and  rotten. 
Political,  or  law-made  society  is,  and  private,  or  volun 
tary  society,  is  also.  In  any  vigor,  the  element  of  the 
moral  conscience,  the  most  important,  the  vertebrae,  to 
State  or  man,  seems  to  me  either  entirely  lacking  or 
seriously  enfeebled  or  ungrown. 

I  say  we  had  best  look  our  time  and  lands  search- 
ingly  in  the  face,  like  a  physician  diagnosing  some  deep 
disease.  Never  was  there,  perhaps,  more  hollowness 
at  heart  than  at  present,  and  here  in  the  United  States. 
Genuine  belief  seems  to  have  left  us.  The  underlying- 
principles  of  The  States  are  not  honestly  believed  in, 
(for  all  this  hectic  glow,  and  these  melo-dramatic 
screamings,)  nor  is  Humanity  itself  believed  in.  What 
penetrating  eye  does  not  everywhere  see  through  the 
mask?  The  spectacle  is  appalling.  We  live  in  an 
atmosphere  of  hypocrisy  throughout.  The  men  believe 
not  in  the  women,  nor  the  women  in  the  men.  A 
scornful  superciliousness  rules  in  literature.  The  aim 
of  all  +he  litterateurs  is  to  find  something  to  make  fun  of. 
A  lot  of  churches,  sects,  &c.,  the  most  dismal  phantasms 
I  know,  usurp  the  name  of  religion.  Conversation  is  a 
mass  of  badinage.  From  deceit  in  the  spirit,  the  mother 
of  all  false  deeds,  the  offspring  is  already  incalculable. 
An  acute  and  candid  person,  in  the  Revenue  Depart 
ment  in  Washington,  who  is  led  by  the  course  of  his 
employment  to  regularly  visit  the  cities,  North,  South, 
and  West,  to  investigate  frauds,  has  talked  much  with 


12  DEJIOCHATIC  VISTAS. 

me  (1869-70)  about  his  discoveries.  The  depravity  of 
the  business  classes  of  our  country  is  not  less  than  has 
been  supposed,  but  infinitely  greater.  The  whole  of  the  • 
official  services  of  America,  National,  State,  and  Munici 
pal,  in  all  their  branches  and  departments,  except  the 
Judiciary,  are  steeped,  saturated  in  corruption,  bribery, 
falsehood,  in al- administration ;  and  the  Judiciary  is 
tainted.  The  great  cities  reek  with  respectable  as  much 
as  non-respectable  robbery  and  scoundrelisin.  In  fash 
ionable  life,  flippancy,  tepid  amours,  weak  infidelism, 
small  aims,  or  no  aims  at  all,  only  to  kill  time.  In  busi 
ness,  (this  all-devouring  modern  word,  business,)  the  one 
sole  object  is,  by  any  means,  pecuniary  gain.  The  ma 
gician's  serpent  in  the  fable  ate  up  all  the  other  ser 
pents  ;  and  money-making  is  our  magician's  serpent, 
remaining  to-day  sole  master  of  the  field.  The  best 
class  we  show,  is  but  a  mob  of  fashionably-dressed 
speculators  and  vulgarians.  True,  indeed,  behind  this 
fantastic  farce,  enacted  on  the  visible  stage  of  society, 
solid  things  and  stupendous  labors  are  to  be  discovered, 
existing  crudely  and  going  on  in  the  background,  to  ad 
vance  and  tell  themselves  in  time.  Yet  the  truths  are 
none  the  less  terrible.  I  say  that  our  New  World  De 
mocracy,  however  great  a  success  in  uplifting  the' masses 
out  of  their  sloughs,  in  materialistic  development,  pro 
ducts,  and  in  a  certain  highly-deceptive  superficial  popu 
lar  intellectuality,  is,  so  far,  an  almost  complete  failure 
in  its  social  aspects,  in  any  superb  general  personal 
character,  and  in  really  grand  religious,  moral,  literary, 
and  esthetic  results.  In  vain  do  we  march  with  unpre 
cedented  strides  to  empire  so  colossal,  outvying  the  an 
tique,  beyond  Alexander's,  beyond  the  proudest  sway  of 
Borne.  In  vain  do  we  annex  Texas,  California,  Alaska, 
and  reach  north  for  Canada  and  south  for  Cuba.  It  is 
as  if  we  were  somehow  being  endowed  with  a  vast  and 
more  and  more  thoroughly-appointed  body,  and  then 
left  with  little  or  no  soul. 

Let  me  illustrate  further,  as  I  write,  with  current  ob 
servations,  localities,  &c.  The  subject  is  important,  and 
will  bear  repetition.  After  an  absence,  I  am  now  (Sep- 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  13 

tember,  1870,)  again  in  New  York  City  and  Brooklyn,  on 
a  few  weeks'  vacation.  The  splendor,  picturesqueness, 
and  oceanic  amplitude  and  rush  of  these  great  cities, 
the  unsurpassed  situation,  rivers  and  bay,  sparkling  sea- 
tides,  costly  and  lofty  new  buildings,  the  faqades  of 
marble  and  iron,  of  original  grandeur  and  elegance  of 
design,  with  the  masses  of  gay  color,  the  preponderance 
of  white  and  blue,  the  flags  flying,  the  endless  ships, 
the  tumultuous  streets,  Broadway,  the  heavy,  low,  mu 
sical  roar,  hardly  ever  intermitted,  even  at  night ;  the 
jobbers'  houses,  the  rich  shops,  the  wharves,  the  great 
Central  Park,  and  the  Brooklyn  Park  of  Hills,  (as  I 
wander  among  them  this  beautiful  fall  weather,  musing, 
watching,  absorbing,) — the  assemblages  of  the  citizens 
in  their  groups,  conversations,  trade,  evening  amuse 
ments,  or  along  the  by-quarters — these,  I  say,  and  the 
like  of  these,  completely  satisfy  my  senses  of  power,  ful 
ness,  motion,  &c.,  and  give  me,  through'  such  senses 
and  appetites,  and  through  my  esthetic  conscience,  a 
continued  exaltation  and  absolute  fulfilment.  Always, 
and  more  and  more,  as  I  cross  the  East  and  North 
rivers,  the  ferries,  or  with  the  pilots  in  their  pilot-houses, 
or  pass  an  hour  in  Wall  street,  or  the  gold  exchange,  I 
realize,  (if  we  must  admit  such  partialisrns,)  that  not 
Nature  alone  is  great  in  her  fields  of  freedom  and  the 
open  air,  in  her  storms,  the  shows  of  night  and  day, 
the  mountains,  forests,  seas — but  in  the  artificial,  the 
work  of  man  too  is  equally  great — in  this  profusion  of 
teeming  humanity,  in  these  ingenuities,  streets,  goods, 
houses,  ships — these  seething,  hurrying,  feverish  crowds 
of  men,  their  complicated  business  genius,  (not  least 
among  the  geniuses,)  and  all  this  mighty,  many-threaded 
wealth  and  industry  concentrated  here. 

But  sternly  discarding,  shutting  our  eyes  to  the  glow 
and  grandeur  of  the  general  effect,  coming  down  to  what 
is  of  the  only  real  importance,  Personalities,  and  exam 
ining  minutely,  we  question,  we  ask,  Are  there,  indeed, 
Men  here  worthy  the  name  ?  Are  there  athletes  ?  Are 
there  perfect  women,  to  match  the  generous  material 
luxuriance  ?  Is  there  a  pervading  atmosphere  of  beau 
tiful  manners  ?  Are  there  crops  of  fine  youths,  and  ma- 


14  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

jestic  old  persons?  Are  there  arts  worthy  Freedom, 
and  a  rich  people  ?  Is  there  a  great  moral  and  religious 
civilization — the  only  justification  of  a  great  material 
one? 

Confess  that  rather  to  severe  eyes,  using  the  moral 
microscope  upon  humanity,  a  sort  of  dry  and  flat  Sa 
hara  appears,  these  cities,  crowded  with  petty  grotesques, 
malformations,  phantoms,  playing  meaningless  antics. 
Confess  that  everywhere,  in  shop,  street,  church,  theatre, 
bar-room,  official  chair,  are  pervading  flippancy  and  vul 
garity,  low  cunning,  infidelity — everywhere,  the  youth 
puny,  impudent,  foppish,  prematurely  ripe — everywhere 
an  abnormal  libidinousneas,  unhealthy  forms,  male,  fe 
male,  painted,  padded,  dyed,  chignoned,  muddy  com 
plexions,  bad  blood,  the  capacity  for  good  motherhood 
deceasing  or  deceased,  shallow  notions  of  beauty,  with 
a  range  of  manners,  or  rather  lack  of  manners,  (consid 
ering  the  advantages  enjoyed,)  probably  the  meanest  to 
be  seen  in  the  world.* 

Of  all  this,  and  these  lamentable  conditions,  to  breathe 
into  them  the  breath  recuperative  of  sane  and  heroic 
life,  I  say  a  new  founded  literature,  not  merely  to  copy 
and  reflect  existing  surfaces,  or  pander  to  what  is  called 
taste — not  only  to  amuse,  pass  away  time,  celebrate  the 
beautiful,  the  refined,  the  past,  -or  exhibit  technical, 


*0f  -these  rapidly-sketched  portraitures,  hiatuses,  the  two  which 
seem  to  me  most  serious  are,  for  one,  the  condition,  absence,  or 
perhaps  the  singular  abeyance,  of  moral,  conscientious  fibre  all 
through  American  society ;  and,  for  another,  the  appalling  deple 
tion  of  women  in  their  powers  of  sane  athletic  maternity,  their 
crowning  attribute,  and  ever  making  the  woman,  in  loftiest 
spheres,  superior  to  the  man. 

I  have  sometimes  thought,  indeed,  that  the  sole  avenue  and 
means  of  a  reconstructed  sociology  depended,  primarily,  on  a  new 
birth,  elevation,  expansion,  invigoration  of  woman,  affording,  for 
races  to  come,  (as  the  conditions  that  antedate  birth  are  indispen 
sable,)  a  perfect  motherhood.  Great,  great,  indeed  far  greater 
than  they  know,  is  the  sphere  of  woman.  But  doubtless  the 
question  of  such  new  sociology  all  goes  together,  includes  many 
varied  and  complex  influences  and  premises,  and  the  man  as  well 
as  the  woman,  and  the  woman  as  well  as  the  man. 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  15 

rhythmic,  or  grammatical  dexterity — but  a  Literature 
underlying  life,  religious,  consistent  with  science,  hand 
ling  the  elements  and  forces  with  competent  power, 
teaching  and  training  men — and,  as  perhaps  the  most 
precious  of  its  results,  achieving  the  entire  redemption 
of  woman  out  of  these  incredible  holds  and  webs  of  sil 
liness,  millinery,  and  every  kind  of  dyspeptic  depletion 
—and  thus  insuring  to  The  States  a  strong  and  sweet 
Female  Race,  a  race  of  perfect  Mothers — is  what  is 
needed. 

And  now,  in  the  full  conception  of  these  facts  and 
points,  and  all  that  they  infer,  pro  and  con — with  yet 
unshaken  faith  in  the  elements  of  the  American  masses, 
the  composites,  of  both  sexes,  and  even  considered  as 
individuals — and  ever  recognizing  in  them  the  broad 
est  bases  of  the  best  literary  and  esthetic  appreciation 
— I  proceed  with  my  speculations,  Vistas. 

First,  let  us  see  what  we  can  make  out  of  a  brief,  gen 
eral,  sentimental  consideration  of  political  Democracy, 
and  whence  it  has  arisen,  with  regard  to  some  of  its 
current  features,  as  an  aggregate,  and  as  the  basic 
structure  of  our  future  literature  and  authorship.  We 
shall,  it  is  true,  quickly  and  continually  find  the  origin- 
idea  of  the  singleness  of  man,  individualism,  asserting 
itself,  and  cropping  forth,  even  from  the  opposite  ideas. 
But  the  mass,  or  lump  character,  for  imperative  rea 
sons,  is  to  be  ever  carefully  weighed,  borne  in  mind, 
and  provided  for.  Only  from  it,  and  from  its  proper 
regulation  and  potency,  comes  the  other,  comes  the 
chance  of  Individualism.  *  The  two  are  contradictory, 
but  our  task  is  to  reconcile  them.* 

*  Tlie  question  hinted  here  is  one  which  time  only  can  answer. 
Must  not  the  virtue  of  modern  Individualism,  continually  enlarg 
ing,  usurping  all,  seriously  affect,  perhaps  keep  down  entirely,  in 
America,  the  like  of  the  ancient  virtue  of  Patriotism,  the  fervid 
and  absorbing  love  of  general  country?  1  have  no  doubt  myself 
that  the  two  will  merge,  and  will  mutually  profit  and  brace  each 
other,  and  that  from  them  a  greater  product,  a  third,  will  arise. 
But  I  feel  that  at  present  they  and  their  oppositions  form  a  serious 
problem  and  paradox  in  the  United  States. 


16  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

The  political  history  of  the  past  may  be  summed  up 
as  having  grown  out  of  what  underlies  the  words  Order, 
Safety,  Caste,  and  especially  out  of  the  need  of  some 
prompt  deciding  Authority,  and  of  Cohesion,  at  all 
cost.  Leaping  time,  we  come  to  the  period  within  the 
memory  of  people  now  living,  when,  as  from  some  lair 
where  they  had  slumbered  long,  accumulating  wrath, 
sprang  up  and  are  yet  active,  (1790,  and  on  even  to  the 
present,  1870,)  those  noisy  eructations,  destructive  icon- 
oclasms,  a  fierce  sense  of  wrongs,  and  amid  which  moves 
the  Form,  well  known  in  modern  history,  in  the  old 
world,  stained  with  much  blood,  and  marked  by  savage 
reactionary  clamors  and  demands.  These  bear,  mostly, 
as  on  one  enclosing  point  of  need. 

For  after  the  rest  is  said — after  the  many  time-hon 
ored  and  really  true  things  for  subordination,  experi 
ence,  rights  of  property,  &c.,  have  been  listened  to  and 
acquiesced  in — after  the  valuable  and  well-settled  state 
ment  of  our  duties  and  relations  in  society  is  thoroughly 
conned  over  and  exhausted — it  remains  to  bring  forward 
and  modify  everything  else  with  the  idea  of  that  Some 
thing  a  man  is,  (last  precious  consolation  of  the  drudg 
ing  poor,)  standing  apart  from  all  else,  divine  in  his 
own  right,  and  a  woman  in  hers,  sole  and  untouchable 
by  any  canons  of  authority,  or  any  rule  derived  from 
precedent,  state-safety,  the  acts  of  legislatures,  or  even 
from  what  is  called  religion,  modesty,  or  art. 

The  radiation  of  this  truth  is  the  key  of  the  most  sig 
nificant  doings  of  our  immediately  preceding  three 
centuries,  and  has  been  the  political  genesis  aiicl  life  of 
America.  Advancing  visibly,  it  still  more  advances  in 
visibly.  Underneath  the  fluctuations  of  the  expressions 
of  society,  as  well  as  the  movements  of  the  politics  of 
the  leading  nations  of  the  world,  we  see  steadily  press 
ing  ahead,  and  strengthening  itself,  even  in  the  midst 
of  immense  tendencies  toward  aggregation,  this  image 
of  completeness  in  separatism,  of  individual  personal 
dignity,  of  a  single  person,  either  male  or  female,  char 
acterized  in  the  main,  not  from  extrinsic  acquirements 
or  position,  but  in  the  pride  of  himself  or  herself  alone; 
and,  as  an  eventual  conclusion  and  summing  up,  (or 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  17 

else  the  entire  scheme  of  things  is  aimless,  a  cheat,  a 
crash,)  the  simple  idea  that  the  last,  best  dependence  is 
to  be  upon  Humanity  itself,  and  its  own  inherent,  nor 
mal,  full-grown  qualities,  without  any  superstitious  sup 
port  whatever.  This  idea  of  perfect  individualism  it  is 
indeed  that  deepest  tinges  and  gives  character  to  the 
idea  of  the  Aggregate.  For  it  is  mainly  or  altogether 
to  serve  independent  separatism  that  we  favor  a  strong 
generalization,  consolidation.  As  it  is  to  give  the  best 
vitality  and  freedom  to  the  rights  of  the  States,  (every 
bit  as  important  as  the  right  of  Nationality,  the  union,) 
that  we  insist  on  the  identity  of  the  Union  at  all  hazards. 

The  purpose  of  Democracy — supplanting  old  belief 
in  the  necessary  absoluteness  of  established  dynastic 
ralership,  temporal,  ecclesiastical,  and  scholastic,  as 
furnishing  the  only  security  against  chaos,  crime,  and 
ignorance — is,  through  many  transmigrations,  and  amid 
endless  ridicules,  arguments,  and  ostensible  failures,  to 
illustrate,  at  all  hazards,  this  doctrine  or  theory  that 
man,  properly  trained  in  sanest,  highest  freedom,  may 
and  must  become  a  law,  and  series  of  laws,  unto  him 
self,  surrounding  and  providing  for,  not  only  his  own 
personal  control,  but  all  his  relations  to  other  individ 
uals,  and  to  the  State  ;  and  that,  while  other  theories, 
as  in  the  past  histories  of  nations,  have  proved  wise 
enough,  and  indispensable  perhaps  for  their  conditions, 
this,  as  matters  now  stand  in  our  civilized  world,  is  the 
only  Scheme  worth  working  from,  as  warranting  results 
like  those  of  Nature's  laws,  reliable,  when  once  estab 
lished,  to  carry  on  themselves. 

The  argument  of  the  matter  is  extensive,  and,  we  ad 
mit,  by  no  means  all  on  one  side.  What  we  shall  offer 
will  be  far,  far  from  sufficient.  But  while  leaving  un 
said  much  that  should  properly  even  prepare  the  way 
for  the  treatment  of  this  many-sided  question  of  politi 
cal  liberty,  equality,  or  republicanism — leaving  the  whole 
history  and  consideration  of  the  Feudal  Plan  and  its 
products,  embodying  Humanity,  its  politics  and  civili 
zation,  through  the  retrospect  of  past  time,  (which  Plan 
and  products,  indeed,  make  up  all  of  the  past,  and  a 
major  part  of  the  present) — Leaving  unanswered,  at 


18  DEMOCEATIC  VISTAS. 

least  by  any  specific  and  local  answer,  many  a  well- 
wrought  argument  and  instance,  and  many  a  conscien 
tious  declamatory  cry  and  warning — as,  very  lately, 
from  an  eminent  and  venerable  person  abroad* — 
things,  problems,  full  of  doubt,  dread,  suspense,  (not 
new  to  me,  but  old  occupiers  of  many  an  anxious  hour 
in  city's  din,  or  night's  silence,)  we  still  may  give  a  page 
or  so,  whose  drift  is  opportune.  Time  alone  can  finally 
answer  these  things.  But  as  a  substitute  in  passing,  let 
us,  even  if  fragmentarily,  throw  forth  a  short  direct  or 
indirect  suggestion  of  the  premises  of  that  other  Plan, 
in  the  new  spirit,  under  the  new  forms,  started  here  in 
our  America. 

As  to  the  political  section  of  Democracy,  which  intro 
duces  and  breaks  ground  for  further  and  vaster  sec 
tions,  few  probably  are  the  minds,  even  in  These  Re 
publican  States,  that  fully  comprehend  the  aptness  of 
that  phrase,  "  THE  GOVERNMENT  or  THE  PEOPLE,  BY  THE 
PEOPLE,  FOB  THE  PEOPLE,"  which  we  inherit  from  the  lips 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  ;  a  formula  whose  verbal  shape  is 
homely  wit,  but  whose  scope  includes  both  the  totality 
and  all  minutiae  of  the  lesson. 

The  People !  Like  our  huge  earth  itself,  which,  to 
ordinary  scansion,  is  full  of  vulgar  contradictions  and 
offence,  Man,  viewed  in  the  lump,  displeases,  and  is  a 
constant  puzzle  and  affront  to  the  merely  educated 
classes.  The  rare,  cosmical,  artist-mind,  lit  with  the 
Infinite,  alone  confronts  his  manifold  and  oceanic  qual- 
ities,  but  taste,  intelligence  and  culture,  (so-called,)  have 
been  against  the  masses,  and  remain  so.  There  is 
plenty  of  glamour  about  the  most  damnable  crimes  and 

*  '•  SHOOTING  NIAGARA." — I  was  at  first  roused  to  much  anger 
a-nd  abuse  by  this  Essay  from  Mr.  Carlyle,  so  insulting  to  the  the 
ory  of  America — but  happening  to  think  afterwards  how  I  had 
more  than  once  been  in  the  like  mood,  during  which  his  essay 
was  evidently  cast,  and  seen  persons  and  things  in  the  same  light, 
(indeed  some  might  say  there  are  signs  of  the  same  feeling  in  this 
book) — I  have  since  read  it  again,  not  only  as  a  study,  expressing 
as  it  does  certain  judgments  from  the  highest  Feudal  point  of 
view,  but  have  read  it  with  respect,  as  coming  from  an  earnest 
soul,  and  as  contributing  certain  sharp-cutting  metallic  grains, 
which,  if  not  gold  or  silver,  may  be  good  hard,  honest  iron. 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  19 

hoggish  meannesses,  special  and  general,  of  the  Feudal 
and  dynastic  world  over  there,  with  its  personnel  of 
lords  and  queens  and  courts,  so  well-dressed  and  so 
handsome.  But  the  People  are  ungrammatical,  untidy, 
and  their  sins  gaunt  and  ill-bred. 

Literature,  strictly  considered,  has  never  recognized 
the  People,  and,  whatever  may  be  said,  does  not  to-day. 
Speaking  generally,  the  tendencies  of  literature,  as  hith 
erto  pursued,  have  been  to  make  mostly  critical  and 
querulous  men.  It  seems  as  if,  so  far,  there  were  some 
natural  repugnance  between  a  literary  and  professional 
life,  and  the  rude  rank  spirit  of  the  Democracies.  There 
is,  in  later  literature,  a  treatment  of  benevolence,  a 
charity  business,  rife  enough  it  is  true ;  but  I  know 
nothing  more  rare,  even  in  this  country,  than  a  fit  scien 
tific  estimate  and  reverent  appreciation  of  the  People — 
of  their  measureless  wealth  of  latent  power  and  capacity, 
their  vast,  artistic  contrasts  of  lights  and  shades — with, 
in  America,  their  entire  reliability  in  emergencies,  and 
a  certain  breadth  of  historic  grandeur,  of  peace  or  war, 
far  suspassing  all  the  vaunted  samples  of  book-heroes, 
or  any  haut  ton  coteries,  in  all  the  records  of  the  world. 

The  movements  of  the  late  Secession  war,  and  their 
results,  to  any  sense  that  studies  well  and  compre 
hends  them,  show  that  Popular  Democracy,  whatever 
its  faults  and  dangers,  practically  justifies  itself  beyond 
the  proudest  claims  and  wildest  hopes  of  its  enthusiasts. 
Probably  no  future  age  can  know,  but  I  well  know,  how 
the  gist  of  this  fiercest  and  most  resolute  of  the  world's 
warlike  contentions  resided  exclusively  in  the  unnamed, 
unknown  rank  and  file  ;  and  how  the  brunt  of  its  labor 
of  death  was,  to  all  essential  purposes,  Volunteered. 
The  People,  of  their  own  choice,  fighting,  dying  for 
their  own  idea,  insolently  attacked  by  the  Secession- 
Slave-Power,  and  its  very  existence  imperiled.  De 
scending  to  detail,  entering  any  of  the  armies,  and 
mixing  with  the  private  soldiers,  we  see  and  have  seen 
august  spectacles.  We  have  seen  the  alacrity  with  which 
the  American-born  populace,  the  peaceablest  and  most 
good-natured  race  in  the  world,  and  the  most  personally 
independent  and  intelligent,  and  the  least  fitted  to  submit 


UNIVERSITY 


20  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

to  the  irksomeness  and  exasperation  of  regimental  disci  - 
pline,  sprang,  at  the  first  tap  of  the  drum,  to  arms — not 
for  gain,  nor  even  glory,  nor  to  repel  invasion — but  for 
an  emblem,  a  mere  abstraction — for  the  life,  the  safety 
of  the  Flag.  We  have  seen  the  unequaled  docility  and 
obedience  of  these  soldiers.  We  have  seen  them  tried 
long  and  long  by  hopelessness,  mismanagement,  and  by 
defeat ;  have  seen  the  incredible  slaughter  toward  or 
through  which  the  armies,  (as  at  first  Fredericksburg, 
and  afterward  at  the  Wilderness,)  still  unhesitating 
ly  obeyed  orders  to  advance.  We  have  seen  them 
in  trench,  or  crouching  behind  breastwork,  or  tramp 
ing  in  deep  mud,  or  amid  pouring  rain  or  thick- 
falling  snow,  or  under  forced  marches  in  hottest  summer 
(as  on  the  road  to  get  to  Gettysburg) — vast  suffocating 
swarms,  divisions,  corps,  with  every  single  man  so  grimed 
and  black  with  sweat  and  dust,  his  own  mother  would  not 
have  known  him — his  clothes  all  dirty,  stained  and  torn, 
with  sour,  accumulated  sweat  for  perfume — many  a 
comrade,  perhaps  a  brother,  sun-struck,  staggering  out, 
dying,  by  the  roadside,  of  exhaustion — yet  the  great 
bulk  bearing  steadily  on,  cheery  enough,  hollow-bellied 
from  hunger,  but  sinewy  with  unconquerable  resolution. 
We  have  seen  this  race  proved  by  wholesale  by 
drearier,  yet  more  fearful  tests — the  wound,  the  ampu 
tation,  the  shattered  face  or  limb,  the  slow,  hot  fever, 
long,  impatient  anchorage  in  bed,  and  all  the  forms  of 
maiming,  operation  and  disease.  Alas  I  America  have 
we  seen,  though  only  in  her  early  youth,  already  to 
hospital  brought.  There  have  we  watched  these  sol 
diers,  many  of  them  only  boys  in  years — marked  their 
decorum,  their  religious  nature  and  fortitude,  and  their 
sweet  affection.  Wholesale,  truly.  For  at  the  front,  and 
through  the  camps,  in  countless  tents,  stood  the  regi 
mental,  brigade  and  division  hospitals  ;  while  every 
where  amid  the  land,  in  or  near  cities,  rose  clusters  of 
huge,  white-washed,  crowded,  one-story  wooden  bar 
racks,  (Washington  City  alone,  with  its  suburbs,  at 
one  period,  containing  in  her  Army  hospitals  of  this 
kind,  50,090  wounded  and  sick  men) — and  there  ruled 
Agony  with  bitter  scourge,  yet  seldom  brought  a  cry  ; 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  21 

and  there  stalked  Death  by  day  and  night  along  the 
narrow  aisles  between  the  rows  of  cots,  or  by  the 
blankets  on  the  ground,  and  touched  lightly  many  a 
poor  sufferer,  often  with  blessed,  welcome  touch. 

I  know  not  whether  I  shall  be  understood,  but  I 
realize  that  it  is  finally  from  what  I  learned  personally 
mixing  in  such  scenes  that  I  am  now  penning  these 
pages.  One  night  in  the  gloomiest  period  of  the  war, 
in  the  Patent  Office  Hospital  in  Washington  City,  as  I 
stood  by  the  bedside  of  a  Pennsylvania  soldier,  who  lay, 
conscious  of  quick  approaching  death,  yet  perfectly  calm, 
and  with  noble,  spiritual  manner,  the  veteran  surgeon, 
turning  aside,  said  to  me,  that  though  he  had  witnessed 
many,  many  deaths  of  soldiers,  and  had  been  a  worker 
at  Ball  Eun,  Antietam,  Fredericksburg,  &c.,  he  had 
not  seen  yet  the  first  case  of  man  or  boy  that  met  the 
approach  of  dissolution  with  cowardly  qualms  or  terror. 
My  own  observation  fully  bears  out  the  remark. 

What  have  we  here,  if  not,  towering  above  all  talk 
and  argument,  the  plentifully-supplied,  last-needed 
proof  of  Democracy,  in  its  personalities  ?  Curiously 
enough,  too,  the  proof  on  this  point  conies,  I  should  say, 
every  bit  as  much  from  the  South,  as  from  the  North. 
Although  I  have  spoken  only  of  the  latter,  yet  I  delib 
erately  include  all.  Grand,  common  stock !  to  me  the 
accomplished  and  convincing  growth,  prophetic  of  the 
future  ;  proof  undeniable  to  sharpest  sense,  of  perfect 
beauty,  tenderness  and  pluck,  that  never  Feudal  lord, 
nor  Greek,  nor  Roman  breed,  yet  rivaled.  Let  no 
tongue  ever  speak  in  disparagement  of  the  American 
races,  North  or  South,  to  one  who  has  been  through  the 
war  in  the  great  army  hospitals. 

Meantime,  general  Humanity,  (for  to  that  we  return, 
as,  for  our  purposes,  what  it  really  is,  to  bear  in  mind,) 
has  always,  in  every  department,  been  full  of  perverse 
maleficence,  and  is  so  yet.  In  downcast  hours  the  Soul 
thinks  it  always  will  be — but  soon  recovers  from  such 
sickly  moods.  I,  as  Democrat,  see  clearly  enough,  (as 
already  illustrated,)  the  crude,  defective  streaks  in  all 
the  strata  of  the  common  people  ;  the  specimens  and 
vast  collections  of  the  ignorant,  the  credulous,  the  unfit 


22  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

and  uncouth,  the  incapable,  and  the  very  low  and  poor. 
The  eminent  person  just  mentioned,  sneeringly  asks 
whether  we  expect  to  elevate  and  improve  a  Nation's 
politics  by  absorbing  such  morbid  collections  and  qual 
ities  therein.  The  point  is  a  formidable  one,  and  there 
will  doubtless  always  be  numbers  of  solid  and  reflective 
citizens  who  will  never  get  over  it.  Our  answer  is  gen 
eral,  and  is  involved  in  the  scope  and  letter  of  this  essay. 
We  believe  the  ulterior  object  of  political  and  all  other 
government,  (having,  of  course,  provided  for  the  police, 
the  safety  of  life,  property,  and  for  the  basic  statute  and 
common  lav/,  and  their  administration,  always  first  in 
order,)  to  be,  among  the  rest,  not  merely  to  rule,  to  re 
press  disorder,  &c.,  but  to  develop,  to  open  up  to  culti 
vation,  to  encourage  the  possibilities  of  all  beneficent 
and  manly  outcroppage,  and  of  that  aspiration  for  inde 
pendence,  and  the  pride  and  self-respect  latent  in  all 
characters.  (Or,  if  there  be  exceptions,  we  cannot,  fix 
ing  our  eyes  on  them  alone,  make  theirs  the  rule  for  all.) 

I  say  the  mission  of  government,  henceforth,  in  civil 
ized  lands,  is  not  repression  alone,  and  not  authority 
alone,  not  even  of  law,  nor  by  that  favorite  standard  of 
the  eminent  writer,  the  rule  of  the  best  men,  the  born 
heroes  and  captains  of  the  race,  (as  if  such  ever,  or  one 
time  out  of  a  hundred,  got  into  the  big  places,  elective 
or  dynastic!) — but,  higher  than  the  highest  arbitrary 
rule,  to  train  communities  through  all  their  grades,  be 
ginning  with  individuals  and  ending  there  again,  to  rule 
themselves. 

What  Christ  appeared  for  in  the  moral-spiritual  field 
for  Human-kind,  namely,  that  in  respect  to  the  absolute 
Soul,  there  is  in  the  possession  of  such  by  each  single 
individual,  something  so  transcendent,  so  incapable  of 
gradations,  (like  life,)  that,  to  that  extent,  it  places  all 
beings  on  a  common  level,  utterly  regardless  of  the  dis 
tinctions  of  intellect,  virtue,  station,  or  any  height  or 
lowliness  whatever — is  tallied  in  like  manner,  in  this 
other  field,  by  Democracy's  rule  that  men,  the  Nation, 
as  a  common  aggregate  of  living  identities,  affording 
in  each  a  separate  and  complete  subject  for  freedom, 
worldly  thrift  and  happiness,  and  for  a  fair  chance  for 


DEMOCEATIC  VISTAS.  23 

growth,  and  for  protection  in  citizenship,  &c.,  must,  to 
the  political  extent  of  the  suffrage  or  vote,  if  no  further, 
be  placed,  in  each  and  in  the  whole,  on  one  broad,  pri 
mary,  universal,  common  platform. 

The  purpose  is  not  altogether  direct ;  perhaps  it  is 
more  indirect.  For  it  is  not  that  Democracy  is  of  ex 
haustive  account,  in  itself.  Perhaps,  indeed,  it  is,  (like 
Nature,)  of  no  account  in  itself.  It  is  that,  as  we  see, 
it  is  the  best,  perhaps  only,  fit  and  full  means,  formu- 
later,  general  caller-forth,  trainer,  for  the  million,  not 
for  grand  material  personalities  only,  but  for  immortal 
souls.  To  be  a  voter  with  the  rest  is  not  so  much  ;  and 
this,  like  every  institute,  will  have  its  imperfections. 
But  to  become  an  enfranchised  man,  and  now,  impedi 
ments  removed,  to  stand  and  start  without  humiliation, 
and  equal  with  the  rest ;  to  commence,  or  have  the  road 
cleared  to  commence,  the  grand  experiment  of  develop 
ment,  whose  end,  (perhaps  requiring  several  genera 
tions,)  mF.y  be  the  forming  of  a  full-grown  man  or 
woman  — that  is  something.  To  ballast  the  State  is 
also  secured,  and  in  our  times  is  to  be  secured,  in  no 
other  way. 

We  do  not,  (at  any  rate  I  do  not,)  put  it  either  on  the 
ground  that  the  People,  the  masses,  even  the  best  of 
them,  are,  in  their  latent  or  exhibited  qualities,  essen 
tially  sensible  and  good — nor  on  the  ground  of  their 
rights ;  but  that,  good  or  bad,  rights  or  no  rights,  the 
Democratic  formula  is  the  only  safe  and  preservative 
one  for  coining  times.  'We  endow  the  masses  with  the 
suffrage  for  their  own  sake,  no  doubt ;  then,  perhaps 
still  more,  from  another  point  of  view,  for  community's 
sake.  Leaving  the  rest  to  the  sentimentalists,  we  pre 
sent  Freedom  as  sufficient  in  its  scientific  aspects,  cold 
as  iee,  reasoning,  deductive,  clear  and  passionless  as 
crystal. 

Democracy  too  is  law,  and  of  the  strictest,  amplest 
kind.  Many  suppose,  (and  often  in  its  own  ranks  the 
error,)  that  it  means  a  throwing  aside  of  law,  and  run 
ning  riot.  But,  briefly,  it  is  the  superior  law,  not  alone 
that  of  physical  force,  the  body,  which,  adding  to,  it 
supersedes  with  that  of  the  spirit.  Law  is  the  unshaka- 


24  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

ble  order  qf  the  universe  forever  ;  and  the  law  over  all, 
and  law  of  laws,  is  tlie  law  of  successions  ;  that  of  the 
superior  law,  in  time,  gradually  supplanting  and  over 
whelming  the  inferior  one.  (While,  for  myself,  I  would 
cheerfully  agree — first  covenanting  that  the  formative 
tendencies  shall  be  administered  in  favor,  or,  at  least 
not  against  it,  and  that  this  reservation  be  closely  con 
strued — that  until  the  individual  or  community  show 
due  signs,  or  be  so  minor  and  fractional  as  not  to  en 
danger  the  State,  the  condition  of  authoritative  tutel 
age  may  continue,  and  self-government  must  abide  its 
time.) 

—Nor  is  the  esthetic  point,  always  an  important  one, 
without  fascination  for  highest  aiming  souls.  The  com 
mon  ambition  strains  for  elevations,  to  become  some 
privileged  exclusive.  The  master  sees  greatness  and 
health  in  being  part  of  the  mass.  Nothing  will  do  as 
well  as  common  ground.  Would  you  have  in  yourself 
the  divine,  vast,  general  law?  Then  merge  yourself 
in  it. 

And,  topping  Democracy,  this  most  alluring  record, 
that  ib  alone  can  bind,  and  ever  seeks  to  bind,  all  na 
tions,  all  men,  of  however  various  and  distant  lands, 
into  a  brotherhood,  a  family.  It  is  the  old,  yet  ever- 
modern  dream  of  Earth,  out  of  her  eldest  and  her 
youngest,  her  fond  philosophers  and  poets.  Not  that 
half  only,  Individualism,  which  isolates.  There  is  an 
other  half,  which  is  Adhesiveness  or  Love,  that  fuses, 
ties  and  aggregates,  making  the  races  comrades,  and 
fraternizing  all.  Both  are  to  be  vitalized  by  Religion, 
(sole  worthiest  elevator  of  man  or  State,)  breathing  into 
the  proud,  material  tissues,  the  breath  of  life.  For  I 
say  at  the  core  of  Democracy,  finally,  is  the  Religious 
element.  All  the  Religions,  old  and  new,  are  there. 
Nor  may  the  Scheme  step  forth,  clothed  in  resplendent 
beauty  and  command,  till  these,  bearing  the  best,  the 
latest  fruit,  the  Spiritual,  the  aspirational,  sha.ll  fully 
appear. 

A  portion  of  our  pages  we  might  indite  with  refer 
ence  toward  Europe,  especially  the  British  part  of  it, 
more  than  our  own  land,  and  thus,  perhaps  not  abso- 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  25 

lutely  needed  for  the  home  reader.  But  the  whole  ques 
tion  hangs  together,  and  fastens  and  links  all  peoples. 
The  Liberalist  of  to-day  has  this  advantage  over  antique 
or  medieval  times,  that  his  doctrine  seeks  not  only  to 
universalize,  but  to  individualize.  Then  the  great  word 
Solidarity  has  arisen. 

I  say  of  all  dangers  to  a  Nation,  as  things  exist  in 
our  day,  there  can  be  no  greater  one  than  having  cer 
tain  portions  of  the  people  set  off  from  the  rest  by  a 
line  drawn — they  not  privileged  as  others,  but  degraded, 
humiliated,  made  of  no  account.  Much  quackery  teems, 
of  course,  even  on  Democracy's  side,  yet  does  not  really 
affect  the  orbic  quality  of  the  matter.  To  work  in,  if 
we  may  so  term  it,  and  justify  God,  his  divine  aggre 
gate,  the  People,  (or,  the  veritable  horned  and  sharp- 
tailed  Devil,  his  aggregate,  if  there  be  who  convulsively 
insist  upon  it,) — this,  I  say,  is  what  Democracy  is  for; 
and  this  is  what  our  America  means,  and  is  doing — may 
I  not  say,  has  done  ?  If  not,  she  means  nothing  more, 
and  does  nothing  more,  than  any  other  land.  And  as, 
by  virtue  of  its  kosmical,  antiseptic  power,  Nature's 
stomach  is  fully  strong  enough  not  only  to  digest  the 
morbific  matter  always  presented,  not  to  be  turned  aside, 
and  perhaps,  indeed,  intuitively  gravitating  thither — but 
even  to  change  such  contributions  into  nutriment  for 
highest  use  and  life — so  American  Democracy's.  That 
is  the  lesson  we,  these  days,  send  over  to  European 
lands  by  every  western  breeze. 

And,  truly,  whatever  may  be  said  in  the  way  of  ab 
stract  argument,  for  or  against  the  theory  of  a  wider 
democratizing  of  institutions  in  any  civilized  country, 
much  trouble  might  well  be  saved  to  all  European  lands 
by  recognizing  this  palpable  fact,  (for  a  palpable  fact  it 
is,)  that  some  form  of  such  democratizing  is  about  the 
only  resource  now  left.  Tliat,  or  chronic  dissatisfaction 
continued,  mutterings  which  grow  annually  louder  and 
louder,  till,  in  due  course,  and  pretty  swiftly  in  most 
cases,  the  inevitable  crisis,  crash,  dynastic  ruin.  Any 
thing  worthy  to  be  called  statesmanship  in  the  Old 
World,  I  should  say,  among  the  advanced  students, 


26  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

adepts,  or  men  of  any  brains,  does  not  debate  to-day 
whether  to  hold  on,  attempting  to  lean  back  and  mon- 
archize,  or  to  look  forward  and  democratize — but  how, 
and  in  what  degree  and  part,  most  prudently  to  demo 
cratize.  The  difficulties  of  the  transfer  may  "be  fearful ; 
perhaps  none  here  in  our  America  can  truly  know  them. 
I,  for  one,  fully  acknowledge  them,  and  sympathize 
deeply.  But  there  is  Time,  and  must  be  Faith ;  and 
Opportunities,  though  gradual  and  slow,  will  every 
where  abroad  be  born. 

There  is  (turning  home  again,)  a  thought,  or  fact, 
I  must  not  forget — subtle  and  vast,  dear  to  America, 
twin-sister  of  its  Democracy — so  ligatured  indeed  to  it, 
that  cither's  death,  if  not  the  other's  also,  would  make 
that  other  live  out  life,  dragging  a  corpse,  a  loathsome 
horrid  tag  and  burden  forever  at  its  feet.  What  the 
idea  of  Messiah  was  to  the  ancient  race  of  Israel, 
through  storm  and  calm,  through  public  glory  and 
their  name's  humiliation,  tenacious,  refusing  to  be  ar 
gued  with,  shedding  all  shafts  of  ridicule  and  disbelief, 
undestroyed  by  captivities,  battles,  deaths — -for  neither 
the  scalding  blood  of  war,  nor  the  rotted  ichor  of  peace 
could  ever  wash  it  ourt,  nor  has  yet — a  great  Idea,  bed 
ded  in  Judah's  heart- — source  of  the  loftiest  Poetry  the 
world  yet  knows — continuing  on  the  same,  though  all 
else  varies — the  spinal  thread  of  the  incredible  romance 
of  that  people's  career  along  five  thousand  years, — So 
runs  this  thought,  this  fact,  amid  our  own  land's  race 
and  history.  It  is  the  thought  of  Oneness,  averaging, 
including  all ;  of  Identity — the  indissoluble  sacred 
Union  of  These  States. 

The  eager  and  often  inconsiderate  appeals  of  reform 
ers  and  revolutionists  are  indispensable  to  counter 
balance  the  inertness  and  fossilism  making  so  large  a 
part  of  human  institutions.  The  latter  will  always  take 
care  of  themselves — the  danger  being  that  they  rapidly 
tend  to  ossify  us.  The  former  is  to  be  treated  with  in 
dulgence,  and  even  respect.  As  circulation  to  air,  so  is 
agitation  and  a  plentiful  degree  of  speculative  license 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  27 

to  political  and  moral  sanity.  Indirectly,  but  surely, 
goodness,  virtue,  law,  (of  tlio  very  best,)  follow  Free 
dom.  These,  to  Democracy,  are  what  the  keel  is  to  the 
ship,  or  saltness  to  the  ocean. 

The  true  gravitation-hold  of  Liberalism  in  the  United 
States  will  be  a  more  universal  ownership  of  property, 
general  homesteads,  general  comfort — a  vast,  inter 
twining  reticulation  of  wealth.  As  the  human  frame, 
or,  indeed,  any  object  in  this  manifold  Universe,  is  best 
kept  together  by  the  simple  miracle  of  its  own  cohesion, 
and  the  necessity,  exercise  and  profit  thereof,  so  a  great 
and  varied  Nationality,  occupying  millions  of  square 
miles,  were  firmest  held  and  knit  by  the  principle  of  the 
safety  and  endurance  of  the  aggregate  of  its  middling 
property  owners. 

So  that,  from  another  point  of  view,  ungracious  as  it 
may  sound,  and  a  paradox  after  what  we  have  been  say 
ing,  Democracy  looks  with  suspicious,  ill-satisfied  eye 
upon  the  very  poor,  the  ignorant,  and  on  those  out  of 
business.  She  asks  for  men  and  women  with  occupa 
tions,  well-on^  owners  of  houses  and  acres,  and  with 
cash  in  the  bank — and  with  some  cravings  for  litera 
ture,  too ;  and  must  have  them,  and  hastens  to  make 
them.  Luckily,  the  seed  is  already  well-sown,  and  has 
taken  ineradicable  root.* 

— Huge  and  mighty  are  our  Days,  our  republican 
lands — and  most  in  their  rapid  shif tings,  their  changes, 
all  in  the  interest  of  the  Cause.  As  I  write  this  pass- 

*  For  fear  of  mistake,  I  may  as  well  distinctly  announce,  as 
cheerfully  included  in  the  model  and  standard  of  These  Vistas,  a 
practical,  stirring,  worldly,  money -making,  even  materialistic 
character.  It  is  undeniable  that  our  farms,  stores,  offices,  dry- 
goods,  coal  and  groceries,  enginery,  cash-accounts,  trades,  earn 
ings,  markets,  &c.,  should  be  attended  to  in  earnest,  and  actively 
pursued,  just  as  if  they  had  a  real  and  permanent  existence.  I 
perceive  clearly  that  the  extreme  business  energy,  and  this  almost 
maniacal  appetite  for  wealth  prevalent  in  the  United  States,  are 
vital  parts  of  amelioration  and  progress,  and  perhaps  indispensa 
bly  needed  to  prepare  the  very  results  I  demand.  My  theory  in 
cludes  riches,  and  the  getting  of  riches,  and  the  amplest  products, 
power,  activity,  inventions,  movements,  &c.  Upon  these,  as  upon 
substrata,  I  raise  the  edifice  designed  in  These  Vistas. 


28  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

age,  (November,  1863,)  the  din  of  disputation  rages 
around  me.  Acrid  the  temper  of  the  parties,  vital  the 
pending  questions.  Congress  convenes  ;  the  President 
sends  his  Message  ;  Reconstruction  is  still  in  abeyance  ; 
the  nominations  and  the  contest  for  the  twenty-first 
Presidentiad  draw  close,  with  loudest  threat  and  bustle. 
Of  these,  and  all  the  like  of  these,  the  eventuations  I 
know  not ;  but  well  I  know  that  behind  them,  and  what 
ever  their  eventuations,  the  really  vital  things  remain 
safe  and  certain,  and  all  the  needed  work  goes  on. 
Time,  with  soon  or  later  superciliousness,  disposes  of 
Presidents,  Congressmen,  party  platforms,  and  such. 
Anon,  it  clears  the  stage  of  each  and  any  mortal  shred 
that  thinks  itself  so  potent  to  its  day  ;  and  at  and  after 
which,  (with  precious,  golden  exceptions  once  or  twice 
in  a  century,)  all  that  relates  to  sir  potency  is  flung  to 
moulder  in  a  burial-vault,  and  no  one  bothers  himself 
the  least  bit  about  it  afterward.  But  the  People  ever 
remains,  tendencies  continue,  and  all  the  idiocratic 
transfers  in  unbroken  chain  go  on.  In  a  few  years  the 
dominion-heart  of  America  will  be  far  inland,  toward 
the  West.  Our  future  National  Capitol  may  not  be 
where  the  present  one  is.  It  is  possible,'  nay  likely,  that 
in  less  than  fifty  years,  it  will  migrate  a  thousand  or  two 
miles,  will  be  re-founded,  and  every  thing  belonging  to 
it  made  on  a  different  plan,  original,  far  more  superb. 
The  main  social,  political  spine-character  of  The  States 
will  probably  run  along  the  Ohio,  Missouri  and  Missis 
sippi  Rivers,  and  west  and  north  of  them,  including 
Canada.  Those  regions,  with  the  group  of  powerful 
brothers  toward  the  Pacific,  (destined  to  the  mastership 
of  that  sea  and  its  countless  Paradises  of  islands,)  will 
compact  and  settle  the  traits  of  America,  with  all  the 
old  retained,  but  more  expanded,  grafted  on  newer, 
hardier,  purely  native  stock.  A  giant  growth,  compo 
site  from  the  rest,  getting  their  contribution,  absorbing 
it,  to  make  it  more  illustrious.  From  the  North,  Intel 
lect,  the  sun  of  things — also  the  idea  of  unswayable 
Justice,  anchor  amid  the  last,  the  wildest  tempests. 
From  the  South,  the  living  Soul,  the  animus  of  good 
and  bad,  haughtily  admitting  no  demonstration  but  its 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  29 

own.  While  from  the  West  itself  comes  solid  Person 
ality,  with  blood  and  brawn,  and  the  deep  quality  of 
all-accepting  fusion. 

Political  Democracy,  as  it  exists  and  practically  works 
in  America,  with  all  its  threatening  evils,  supplies  a 
training-school  for  making  grand  young  men.  It  is 
life's  gymnasium,  not  of  good  only,  but  of  all.  We  try 
often,  though  we  foil  back  often.  A  brave  delight,  fit 
for  freedom's  athletes,  fills  these  arenas,  and  fully  satis 
fies,  out  of  the  action  in  them,  irrespective  of  success. 
Whatever  we  do  not  attain,  we  at  any  rate  attain  the 
experiences  of  the  fight,  the  hardening  of  the  strong 
campaign,  and  throb  with  currents  of  attempt  at  least. 
Time  is  ample.  Let  the  victors  come  after  us.  Not  for 
nothing  does  evil  play  its  part  among  men.  Judging 
from  the  main  portions  of  the  history  of  the  world,  so 
far,  justice  is  always  in  jeopardy,  peace  walks  amid 
hourly  pitfalls,  and  of  slavery,  misery,  meanness,  the 
craffc  of  tyrants  a  ad  the  credulity  of  the  populace,  in 
some  of  their  protean  forms,  no  voice  can  at  any  time 
say,  They  are  not.  The  clouds  break  a  little,  and  the 
sun  shines  out — but  soon  and  certain  the  lowering  dark 
ness  falls  again,  as  if  to  last  forever.  Yet  is  there  an 
immortal  courage  and  prophecy  in  every  sane  soul  that 
cannot,  must  not,  under  any  circumstances,  capitulate. 
Vive,  the  attack — the  perennial  assault !  Vive,  the  un 
popular  cause — the  spirit  that  audaciously  aims — the 
never-abandoned  efforts,  pursued  the  same  amid  oppo 
sing  proofs  and  precedents. 

— Once,  before  the  war,  (Alas !  I  dare  not  say  how 
many  times  the  mood  has  come!)  I,  too,  was  filled  with 
doubt  and  gloom.  A  foreigner,  an  acute  and  good  man, 
had  impressively  said  to  me,  that  day — putting  in  form, 
indeed,  my  own  observations  :  I  have  traveled  much  in 
the  United  States,  and  watched  their  politicians,  and 
listened  to  the  speeches  of  the  candidates,  and  read  the 
journals,  and  gone  into  the  public  houses,  and  heard 
the  unguarded  talk  of  men.  And  I  have  found  your 
vaunted  America  honey-combed  from  top  to  toe  with 
infidelism,  even  to  itself  and  its  own  programme.  I 


30  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

have  marked  the  brazen  hell-faces  of  secession  and 
slavery  gazing  defiantly  from  'all  the  windows  and  door 
ways.  I  have  everywhere  found,  primarily,  thieves  and 
scalliwags  arranging  the  nominations  to  offices,  and 
sometimes  filling  the  offices  themselves.  I  have  four.d 
the  North  just  as  full  of  bad  stuff  as  the  South.  Of  the 
holders  of  public  office  in  the  Nation,  or  in  the  States, 
or  their  municipalities.,  I  have  found  that  not  one  in  a 
hundred  has  been  chosen  by  any  spontaneous  selection 
of  the  outsiders,  the  people,  but  all  have  been  nomi 
nated  and  put  through  by  little  or  large  caucuses  of  the 
politicians,  and  have  got  in  by  corrupt  rings  and  elec 
tioneering,  not  capacity  or  desert.  I  have  noticed  how 
the  millions  of  sturdy  farmers  and  mechanics  are  thus 
the  helpless  supple-jacks  of  comparatively  few  politi 
cians.  And  I  have  noticed  more  and  more,  the  alarm 
ing  spectacle  of  parties  usurping  the  Government,  and 
openly  and  shamelessly  wielding  it  for  party  purposes. 

Sad,  serious,  deep  truths.  Yet  are  there  other,  still 
deeper,  amply  confronting,  dominating  truths.  Over 
those  politicians  and  great  and  little  rings,  and  over  all 
their  insolence  and  wiles,  and  over  the  powerfulest  par 
ties,  looms  a  Power,  too  sluggish  may-be,  but  ever  hold 
ing  decisions  and  decrees  in  hand,  ready,  with  stern 
process,  to  execute  them  as  soon  as  plainly  needed,  and 
at  times,  indeed,  summarily  crushing  to  atoms  the 
mightiest  parties,  even  in  the  hour  of  their  pride. 

In  saner  hours  far  different  are  the  amounts  of  these 
things  from  what,  at  first  sight,  they  appear.  Though 
it  is  no  doubt  important  who  is  elected  President  or 
Governor,  Mayor  or  Legislator,  (and  full  of  dismay 
when  incompetent  or  vile  ones  get  elected,  as  they 
sometimes  do,)  there  are  other,  quieter  contingencies, 
infinitely  more  important.  Shams,  &c.,  will  always  be 
the  show,  like  ocean's  scum ;  enough,  if  waters  deep 
and  clear  make  up  the  rest.  Enough,  that  while  the 
piled  embroidered  shoddy  gaud  and  fraud  spreads  to 
the  superficial  eye,  the  hidden  warp  and  weft  are  gen 
uine,  and  will  wear  forever.  Enough,  in  short,  that  the 
race,  the  land  which  could  raise  such  as  the  late  Rebel 
lion,  could  also  put  it  down. 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  31 

The  average  man  of  a  land  at  last  only  is  important. 
He,  in  These  States,  remains  immortal  owner  and  boss, 
deriving  good  uses,  somehow,  out  of  any  sort  of  servant 
in  office,  even  the  basest ;  because,  (certain  universal 
requisites,  and  their  settled  regularity  and  protection, 
being  first  secured,)  a  Nation  like  ours,  in  a  sort  of  geo 
logical  formation  state,  trying  continually  new  experi 
ments,  choosing  new  delegations,  is  not  served  by  the 
best  men  only,  but  sometimes  more  by  those  that  pro 
voke  it — by  the  combats  they  arouse.  Thus  national 
rage,  fury,  discussion,  &c.,  better  than  content.  Thus, 
also,  the  warning  signals,  invaluable  for  after  times. 

What  is  more  dramatic  than  the  spectacle  we  have 
seen  repeated,  and  doubtless  long  shall  see— the  pop 
ular  judgment  taking  the  successful  candidates  on  trial 
in  the  offices — standing  off,  as  it  were,  and  observing 
them  and  their  doings  for  a  while,  and  always  giving, 
finally,  the  fit,  exactly  due  reward  ? 

I  think,  after  all,  the  sublimest  part  of  political  his 
tory,  and  its  culmination,  is  currently  issuing  from  the 
American  people. .  I  know  nothing  grander,  better  ex 
ercise,  better  digestion,  more  positive  proof  of  the  past, 
the  triumphant  result  of  faith  in  humankind,  than  a 
well-contested  American  national  election. 

Then  still  the  thought  returns,  (like  the  thread-pass 
age  in  overtures,)  giving  the  key  and  echo  to  these 
pages.  When  I  pass  to  and  fro,  different  latitudes,  dif 
ferent  seasons,  beholding  the  crowds  of  the  great  cities, 
New  York,  Boston,  Philadelphia,  Cincinnati,  Chicago, 
St.  Louis,  San  Francisco,  New  Orleans,  Baltimore — 
when  I  mix  with  these  interminable  swarms  of  alert, 
turbulent,  good-natured,  independent  citizens,  mechan 
ics,  clerks,  young  persons — at  the  idea  of  this  mass  of 
men,  so  fresh  and  free,  so  loving  and  so  proud,  a  singu 
lar  awe  falls  upon  me.  I  feel,  with  dejection  and  amaze 
ment,  that  among  our  geniuses  and  talented  writers  or 
speakers,  few  or  none  have  yet  really  spoken  to  this 
people,  or  created  a  single  image-making  work  that 
could  be  called  for  them — or  absorbed  the  central  spirit 
and  the  idiosyncrasies  which  are  theirs,  and  which,  thus, 


32  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

in  highest  ranges,  so  far  remain  entirely  uncelebrated, 
unexpressed. 

Dominion  strong  is  the  body's  ;  dominion -stronger  is 
the  mind's.  What  has  filled,  and  fills  to-day  our  intel 
lect,  our  fancy,  furnishing  the  standards  therein,  is  yet 
foreign.  The  great  poems,  Shakespeare  included,  are 
poisonous  to  the  idea  of  the  pride  and  dignity  of  the 
common  people,  the  life-blood  of  Democracy.  The 
models  of  our  literature,  as  we  get  it  from  other  lands, 
ultramarine,  have  had  their  birth  in  courts,  and  basked 
and  grown  in  castle  sunshine  ;  all  smells  of  princes' 
favors.  Of  workers  of  a  certain  sort,  we  have,  indeed, 
plenty,  contributing  after  their  kind ;  many  elegant, 
many  learned,  all  complacent.  But,  touched  by  the 
National  test,  or  tried  by  the  standards  of  Democratic 
personality,  they  wither  to  ashes.  I  say  I  have  not 
seen  a  single  writer,  artist,  lecturer,  or  what  not,  that 
has  confronted  the  voiceless  but  ever  erect  and  active, 
pervading,  underlying  will  and  typic  Aspiration  of  the 
land,  in  a  spirit  kindred  to  itself.  Do  you  call  those 
genteel  little  creatures  American  poets  ?  Do  you  term 
that  perpetual,  pistareen,  paste-pot  work,  American  art, 
American  drama,  taste,  verse  ?  I  think  I  hear,  echoed 
as  from  some  mountain-top  afar  in  the  West,  the  scorn 
ful  laugh  of  the  Genius  of  These  States. 

— Democracy,  in  silence,  biding  its  time,  ponders  its 
own  ideals,  not  of  Literature  and  Art  only — not  of  men 
only,  but  of  women.  The  idea  of  the  women  of  America, 
(extricated  from  this  daze,  this  fossil  and  unhealthy  air 
which  hangs  about  the  word  Lady,)  developed,  raised 
to  become  the  robust  equals,  workers,  and,  it  may  be, 
even  practical  and  political  deciders  with  the  men — 
greater  than  man,  we  may  admit,  through  their  divine 
maternity,  always  their  towering,  emblematical  attri 
bute — but  great,  at  any  rate,  as  man,  in  all  depart 
ments  ;  or,  rather,  capable  of  being  so,  soon  as  they 
realize  it,  and  can  bring  themselves  to  give  up  toys  and 
fictions,  and  launch  forth,  as  men  do,  amid  real,  inde 
pendent,  stormy  life. 

— Then,  as  toward  our  thought's  finale,  (arid,  in  that, 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  83 

overarching  the  true  scholar's  lesson,)  we  have  to  say 
there  can  be  no  complete  or  epical  presentation  of  Do- 
mocracy  in  the  aggregate,  or  any  thing  like  it,  at  this 
day,  because  its  doctrines  will  only  be  effectually  incar 
nated  in  any  one  branch,  when,  in  all,  their  spirit  is  at 
the  root  and  centre.  Far,  far,  indeed,  stretch,  in  dis 
tance,  our  vistas !  How  much  is  still  to  be  disentangled, 
freed !  How  long  it  takes  to  make  this  world  see  that 
it  is,  in  itself,  the  final  authority  and  reliance ! 

Did  you,  too,  O  friend,  suppose  Democracy  was  only 
for  elections,  for  politics,  and  for  a  party  name  ?  I  say 
Democracy  is  only  of  use  there  that  it  may  pass  on  and 
come  to  its  flower  and  fruits  in  manners,  in  the  highest 
f  :>rms  of  interaction  between  men,  and  their  beliefs — in 
lleligion,  Literature,  colleges,  and  schools — Democracy 
in  all  public  and  private  life,  and  in  the  Army  and  Navy.* 
I  have  intimated  that,  as  a  paramount  scheme,  it  has  yet 
few  or  no  full  realizers  and  believers.  I  do  not  see, 
either,  that  it  owes  any  serious  thanks  to  noted  propa 
gandists  or  champions,  or  has  been  essentially  helped, 
though  often  harmed,  by  them.  It  has  been  and  is  car 
ried  on  by  all  the  moral  forces,  and  by  trade,  finance, 
machinery,  intercommunications,  and,  in  fact,  by  all  the 
developments  of  history,  and  can  no  more  be  stopped 
than  the  tides,  or  the  earth  in  its  orbit.  Doubtless, 
also,  it  resides,  crude  and  latent,  well  down  in  the 
hearts  of  the  fair  average  of  the  American-born  people, 
mainly  in  the  agricultural  regions.  But  it  is  not  vet/ 
there  or  anywhere,  the  fully-received,  the  fervid,  the  ab 
solute  faith. 

I  submit,  therefore,  that  the  fruition  of  Democracy, 
on  aught  like  a  grand  scale,  resides  altogether  in  the 
future.  As,  under  any  profound  and  comprehensive 
view  of  the  gorgeous-composite  Feudal  world,  we  see 

""  The  whole  present  system  of  the  officering  and  pertonnel  of 
the^Army  and  Navy  of  These  States,  and  the  spirit  and  letter  of 
their  trebly-aristocratic  rules  and  regulations,  is  a  monstrous  ex 
otic,  a  nuisance  and  revolt,  and  belong  here  just  as  much  as  orders 
of  nobility,  or  the  Pope's  council  of  Cardinals.  I  say  if  the  pres 
ent  theory  of  our  Army  and  Navy  is  sensible  and  true,  then  the 
rest  of  America  is  an  unmitigated  fraud. 


34  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

in  it,  through  the  long  ages  and  cycles  of  ages,  flie  re 
sults  of  a  deep,  integral,  human  and  divine  principle,  or 
fountain,  from  which  issued  laws,  ecclesia,  manners,  in 
stitutes,  costumes,  personalities,  poems,  (hitherto  une- 
qualed,)  faithfully  partaking  of  their  source,  and  in 
deed  only  arising  either  to  betoken  it,  or  to  furnish 
parts  of  that  varied-flowing  display,  whose  centre  was 
one  and  absolute — so,  long  ages  hence,  shall  the  due 
historian  or  critic  make  at  least  an  equal  retrospect,  an 
equal  History  for  the  Democratic  principle.  It,  too, 
must  be  adorned,  credited  with  its  results — then,  when 
ib,  with  imperial  power,  through  amplest  time,  has  domi 
nated  mankind — has  been  the  source  and  test  of  all  the 
moral,  esthetic,  social,  political,  and  religious  expres 
sions  and  institutes  of  the  civilized  world — has  begotten 
them  in  spirit  and  in  form,  and  carried  them  to  its  own 
unprecedented  heights — has  had,  (it  is  possible,)  monas 
tics  and  ascetics,  more  numerous,  more  devout  than  the 
monks  and  priests  of  all  previous  creeds — has  swayed 
the  ages  with  a  breadth  and  rectitude  tallying  Nature's 
own — has  fashioned,  systematized,  and  triumphantly  fin 
ished  and  carried  out,  in  its  own  interest,  and  with  un 
paralleled  success,  a  New  Earth  and  a  New  Man. 

— Thus  we  presume  to  write,  as  it  were,  upon  things 
that  exist  not,  and  travel  by  maps  yet  unmade,  and  a 
blank.  But  the  throes  of  birth  are  upon  us ;  and  we 
have  something  of  this  advantage  in  seasons  of  strong 
formations,  doubts,  suspense — tar  then  the  afflatus  of 
such  themes  haply  may  fall  upon  us,  more  or  less  ;  and 
then,  hot  from  surrounding  war  and  revolution,  our 
speech,  though  without  polished  coherence,  and  a  fail 
ure  by  the  standard  called  criticism,  comes  forth,  real 
at  least,  as  the  lightnings. 

And  may-be  we,  these  days,  have,  too,  our  own  re 
ward — (for  there  are  yet  some,  in  all  lands,  worthy  to 
be  so  encouraged.)  Though  not  for  us  the  joy  of  en 
tering  at  the  last  the  conquered  city — nor  ours  the 
chance  ever  to  see  with  our  own  eyes  the  peerless 
power  and  splendid  eclat  of  the  Democratic  principle, 
arrived  at  meridian,  filling  the  world  with  effulgence 
and  majesty  far  beyond  those  of  past  history's  kings, 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  35 

or  all  dynastic  sway — there  is  yet,  to  whoever  is  eligible 
among  us,  the  prophetic  vision,  the  joy  of  being  tossed 
in  the  brave  turmoil  of  these  times — the  promulgation 
and  the  path,  obedient,  lowly  reverent  to  the  voice,  the 
gesture  of  the  god,  or  holy  ghost,  which  others  see  not, 
hear  not— with  the  proud  consciousness  that  amid  what 
ever  clouds,  seductions,  or  heart-wearying  postpone 
ments,  we  have  never  deserted,  never  despaired,  never 
abandoned  the  Faith. 


So  much  contributed,  to  be  conned  well,  to  help  pre 
pare  and  brace  our  edifice,  our  plann'd  Idea — we  still 
proceed  to  give  it  in  another  of  its  aspects — perhaps 
the  main,  the  high  faqade  of  all.     For  to  Democracy, 
the  leveler,  the  unyielding  principle  of  the  average,  is 
surely  joined    another    principle,    equally   unyielding, 
closely  tracking  the  first,  indispensable  to  it,  opposite, 
(as  the  sexes  are  opposite,)  and  whose  existence,  con 
fronting  and  ever  modifying  the  other,  often  clashing, 
paradoxical,  yet  neither  of  highest   avail  without  the 
other,  plainly  supplies  to  these  grand  cosmic  politics  of 
ours,  and  to  the  launched  forth  mortal  dangers  of  Re 
publicanism,  to-day  or  any  day,  the  counterpart  and 
offset,  whereby  Nature  restrains  the  deadly  original  re- 
lentlessness  of  all  her   first-class   laws.     This   second 
principle  is  Individuality,  the  pride  and  centripetal  iso 
lation  of  a  human  being  in  himself, — Identity — Person- 
all  sm.    Whatever  the  name,  its  acceptance  and  thorough 
infusion  through  the  organizations  of  political  common 
alty  now  shooting  Aurora-like  about  the  world,  are  of 
utmost  importance,  as  the  principle  itself  is  needed  for 
very  life's  sake.     It  forms,  in  a  sort,  or  is  to  form,  the 
compensating  balance-wheel  of  the  successful  working 
machinery  of  aggregate  America. 

— And,  if  we  think  of  it,  what  does  civilization  itself 
rest  upon — and  what  object  has  it,  with  its  religions, 
arts,  schools,  &c.,  but  rich,  luxuriant,  varied  Personal- 
ism  ?  To  that,  all  bends  ;  and  it  is  because  toward  such 
result  Democracy  alone,  on  anything  like  Nature's  scale, 
breaks  up  the  limitless  fallows  of  humankind,  and  plants 


36  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

the  seed,  and  gives  fair  play,  that  its  claims  now  precede 
the  rest. 

The  Literature,  Songs,  Esthetics,  &c.,  of  a  country 
are  of  importance  principally  because  they  furnish  the 
materials  and  suggestions  of  Personality  for  the  women 
and  men  of  that  country,  and  enforce  them  in  a  thou 
sand  effective  ways.* 

As  the  topmost  claim  of  a  strong  consolidating  of  the 
Nationality  of  These  States,  is,  that  only  by  such  pow 
erful  compaction  can  the  separate  States  secure  that  full 
and  free  swing  within  their  spheres,  which  is  becoming 
to  them,  each  after  its  kind,  so  will  Individuality,  with 
unimpeded  branchings,  nourish  best  under  imperial  Re 
publican  forms. 

— Assuming  Democracy  to  be  at  present  in  its  embryo 


*  After  the  rest  is  satiated,  all  interest  culminates  in  the  field  of 
Persons,  and  never  flags  there.  Accordingly  in  this  field  hav  > 
the  great  poets  and  Literatuses  signally  toiled.  They  too,  in  all 
ages,  all  lands,  have  been  creators,  fashioning,  making  types  of 
men  and  women,  as  Adam  and  Eve  are  made  in  the  divine  fable. 
Behold,  shaped,  bred  by  Orientalism,  Feudalism,  through  their 
long  growth  and  culmination,  and  breeding  back  in  return, 
(When  shall  wo  have  an  equal  series,  typical  of  Democracy  ?) — 
Behold,  commencing  in  primal  Asia,  (apparently  formulated,  in 
what  beginning  we  know,  in  the  gods  of  the  mythologies,  and 
coming  down  thence,)  a  few  samples  out  of  the  countless  product, 
bequeathed  to  the  moderns,  bequeathed  to  America  as  studios. 
For  the  men,  Yudishtura,  Rama,  Arjuna,  Solomon,  most  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testament  characters  ;  Achilles,  Ulysses,  Theseus, 
Prometheus,  Hercules,  JEneas,  St.  John,  Plutarch's  heroes;  the 
Merlin  of  Celtic  bards,  the  Cid,  Arthur  and  his  knights,  Siegfried 
and  Hagen  in  the  Niebelungen ;  Roland  and  Oliver  ;  Roustam  in 
the  Shah-Nehmah ;  and  so  on  to  Milton's  Satan,  Cervantes'  Don 
Quixote,  Shakespeare's  Hamlet,  Richard  II.,  Lear,  Marc  Antony, 
&c.,  and  the  modern  Faust.  These,  I  say,  are  models,  combined, 
adjusted  to  other  standards  than  America's,  but  of  priceless  value 
to  her  and  hers. 

Among  women,  the  goddesses  of  the  Egyptian,  Indian  and 
Greek  mythologies,  certain  Bible  characters,  especially  the  Holy 
Mother ;  Cleopatra,  Penelope ;  the  portraits  of  Brunhelde  and 
Chriemhilde  in  the  Niebelungen ;  Oriana,  Una,  &c.  ;  the  modern 
Consuelo,  Walter  Scott's  Jeanie  and  Effie  Deans,  &c.,  &c.  (Woman, 
portrayed  or  outlined  at  her  best,  or  as  perfect  human  Mother, 
does  not  yet,  it  seems  to  me,  fully  appear  in  Literature.) 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  37 

condition,  and  that  the  only  large  and  satisfactory  justi 
fication  of  it  resides  in  the  future,  mainly  through  the 
copious  production  of  perfect  characters  among  the 
people,  and  through  the  advent  of  a  sane  and  pervading 
Beligiousness,  it  is  with  regard  to  the  atmosphere  and 
spaciousness  fit  for  such  characters,  and  of  certain  nutri 
ment  and  cartoon-draftings  proper  for  them,  and  indi 
cating  them,  for  New  World  purposes,  that  I  continue 
the  present  statement — an  exploration,  as  of  new 
ground,  wherein,  like  other  primitive  surveyors,  I  must 
do  the  best  I  can,  leaving  it  to  those  who  come  after 
me  to  do  much  better.  The  service,  in  fact,  if  any,  must 
be  to  merely  break  a  sort  of  first  path  or  track,  no 
matter  how  rude  and  ungeometrical. 

We  have  frequently  printed  the  word  Democracy. 
Yet  I  cannot  too  often  repeat  that  it  is  a  word  the  real 
gist  of  which  still  sleeps,  quite  unawakened,  notwith 
standing  the  resonance  and  the  many  angry  tempests, 
out  of  which  its  syllables  have  come,  from  pen  or  tongue. 
It  is  a  great  word,  whose  history,  I  suppose,  remains 
unwritten,  because  that  history  has  yet  to  be  enacted. 
It  is,  in  some  sort,  younger  brother  of  another  great 
and  often-used  word,  Nature,  whose  history  also  waits 
unwritten. 

As  I  perceive,  the  tendencies  of  our  day,  in  The  States, 
(and  I  entirely  respect  them,)  are  toward  those  vast  and 
sweeping  movements,  influences,  moral  and  physical,  of 
humanity,  now  and  always  current  over  the  planet,  on 
the  scale  of  the  impulses  of  the  elements.  Then  it  is 
also  good  to  reduce  the  whole  matter  to  the  considera 
tion  of  a  single  self,  a  man,  a  woman,  on  permanent 
grounds.  Even  for  the  treatment  of  the  universal,  in 
politics,  metaphysics,  or  anything,  sooner  or  later  we 
come  down  to  one  single,  solitary  Soul. 

There  is,  in  sanest  hours,  a  consciousness,  a  thought 
that  rises,  independent,  lifted  out  from  all  else,  calm, 
like  the  stars,  shining  eternal.  This  is  the  thought  of 
Identity — yours  for  you,  whoever  you  are,  as  mine  for 
me.  Miracle  of  miracles,  beyond  statement,  most  spir 
itual  and  vaguest  of  earth's  dreams,  yet  hardest  basic 
fact,  and  only  entrance  to  all  facts.  In  such  devout 


88  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

hours,  in  the  midst  of  the  significant  wonders  of  heaven 
and  earth,  (significant  only  because  of  the  Me  in  the 
centre,)  creeds,  conventions,  fall  away  and  become  of  no 
account  before  this  simple  idea.  Under  the  luminous- 
ness  of  real  vision,  it  alone  takes  possession,  takes  value. 
Like  the  shadowy  dwarf  in  the  fable,  once  liberated  and 
looked  upon,  it  expands  over  the  whole  earth,  and 
spreads  to  the  roof  of  heaven. 

The  quality  of  BEING,  in  the  object's  self,  according 
to  its  own  central  idea  and  purpose,  and  of  growing 
therefrom  and  thereto — not  criticism  by  other  stand 
ards,  and  adjustments  thereto — is  the  lesson  of  Nature. 
True,  the  full  man  wisely  gathers,  culls,  absorbs ;  but 
if,  engaged  disproportionately  in  that,  he  slights  or 
overlays  the  precious  idiocrasy  and  special  nativity  and 
intention  that  he  is,  the  man's  self,  the  main  thing,  is  a 
failure,  however  wide  his  general  cultivation.  Thus,  in 
our  times,  refinement  and  delicatesse  are  not  only  at 
tended  to  sufficiently,  but  threaten  to  eat  us  up,  like  a 
cancer.  Already,  the  Democratic  genius  watches,  ill- 
pleased,  these  tendencies.  Provision  for  a  little  healthy 
rudeness,  savage  virtue,  justification  of  what  one  has  in 
one's  self,  whatever  it  is,  is  demanded.  Negative  quali 
ties,  even  deficiencies,  would  be  a  relief.  Singleness 
and  normal  simplicity,  and  separation,  amid  this  more 
and  more  complex,  more  and  more  artificialized,  state 
of  society — how  pensively  we  yearn  for  them !  how  we 
would  welcome  their  return ! 

In  some  such  direction,  then — at  any  rate  enough  to 
preserve  the  balance — we  feel  called  upon  to  throw 
what  weight  we  can,  not  for  absolute  reasons,  but  cur 
rent  ones.  To  prune,  gather,  trim,  conform,  and  ever 
cram  and  stuff,  is  the  pressure  of  our  days.  While 
aware  that  much  can  be  said  even  in  behalf  of  all  this, 
we  perceive  that  we  have  not  now  to  consider  the  ques 
tion  of  what  is  demanded  to  serve  a  half-starved  and 
barbarous  nation,  or  set  of  nations,  but  what  is  most 
applicable,  most  pertinent,  for  numerous  congeries  of 
conventional,  over-corpulent  societies  already  becoming 
stifled  and  rotten  with  flatulent,  infidelisuc  literature, 
and  polite  conformity  and  art. 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.      rw^'O1 

In  addition  to  established  sciences,  we  suggest  a 
science  as  it  were  of  healthy  average  Personalism,  on 
original-universal  grounds,  the  object  of  which  should 
be  to  raise  up  and  supply  through  The  States  a  copious 
race  of  superb  American  men  and  women,  cheerful,  re 
ligious,  ahead  of  any  yet  known. 

America,  leaving  out  her  politics,  has  yet  morally 
originated  nothing.  She  seems  singularly  unaware  that 
the  models  of  persons,  books,  manners,  &c.,  appropriate 
for  former  conditions  and  for  European  lands,  are  but 
exiles  and  exotics  here.  No  current  of  her  life,  as  shown 
on  the  surfaces  of  what  is  authoritatively  called  her  So 
ciety,  accepts  or  runs  into  moral,  social,  or  esthetic  De 
mocracy  ;  but  all  the  currents  set  squarely  against  it. 
Never,  in  the  Old  World,  was  thoroughly  upholstered 
Exterior  Appearance  and  show,  mental  and  other,  built 
entirely  on  the  idea  of  caste,  and  on  the  sufficiency  of 
mere  outside  Acquisition — never  were  Glibness,  verbal 
Intellect,  more  the  test,  the  emulation — more  loftily 
elevated  as  head  and  sample — than  they  are  on  the 
surface  of  our  Kepublicau  States  this  day.  The  writers 
of  a  time  hint  the  mottoes  of  its  gods.  The  word  of 
the  modern,  say  these  voices,  is  the  word  Culture. 

"We  find  ourselves  abruptly  in  close  quarters  with  the 
enemy.  This  word  Culture,  or  what  it  has  come  to  rep 
resent,  involves,  by  contrast,  our  whole  theme,  and  has 
been,  indeed,  the  spur,  urging  us  to  engagement.  Cer 
tain  questions  arise. 

As  now  taught,  accepted  and  carried  out,  are  not  the 
processes  of  Culture  rapidly  creating  a  class  of  super 
cilious  infidels,  who  believe  in  nothing  ?  Shall  a  man 
lose  himself  in  countless  masses  of  adjustments,  and  be 
so  shaped  with  reference  to  this,  that,  and  the  other, 
that  the  simply  good  and  healthy  and  brave  parts  of 
him  are  reduced  and  clipped  away,  like  the  bordering 
of  box  in  a  garden  ?  You  can  cultivate  corn  and  roses 
and  orchards — but  who  shall  cultivate  the  primaeval 
forests,  the  mountain  peaks,  the  ocean,  and  the  tum 
bling  gorgeousness  of  the  clouds?  Lastly — Is  the 
readily-given  reply  that  Culture  only  seeks  to  help, 


40  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

systematize,  and  put  in  attitude,  the  elements  of  fer 
tility  and  power,  a  conclusive  reply  ? 

I  do  not  so  much  object  to  the  name,  or  word,  but  I 
should  certainly  insist,  for  the  purposes  of  These  States, 
on  a  radical  change  of  category,  in  the  distribution  of 
precedence.  I  should  demand  a  programme  of  Cul 
ture,  drawn  out,  not  for  a  single  class  alone,  or  for  the 
parlors  or  lecture-rooms,  but  with  an  eye  to  practical 
life,  the  West,  the  working-men,  the  facts  of  farms  and 
jackplanes  and  engineers,  and  of  the  broad  range  of  the 
women  also  of  the  middle  and  working  strata,  and  with 
reference  to  the  perfect  equality  of  women,  and  of  a 
grand  and  powerful  motherhood.  I  should  demand  of 
this  programme  or  theory  a  scope  generous  enough  to 
include  the  widest  human  area.  It  must  have  for  its 
spinal  meaning  the  formation  of  a  typical  Personality 
of  character,  eligible  to  the  uses  of  the  high  average  of 
men — and  not  restricted  by  conditions  ineligible  to  the 
masses. 

The  best  culture  will  always  be  that  of  the  manly  and 
courageous  instincts,  and  loving  perceptions,  and  of 
self-respect — aiming  to  form,  over  this  continent,  an 
Idiocrasy  of  Universalism,  which,  true  child  of  America, 
will  bring  joy  to  its  mother,  returning  to  her  in  her  own 
spirit,  recruiting  myriads  of  men,  able,  natural,  per 
ceptive,  tolerant,  devout,  real  men,  alive  and  full,  be 
lievers  in  her,  America,  and  with  some  definite  instinct 
why  and  for  what  she  has  arisen,  most  vast,  most  formi 
dable  of  historic  births,  and  is,  now  and  here,  with  won 
derful  step,  journeying  through  Time. 

The  problem,  as  it  seems  to  me,  presented  to  the 
New  World,  is,  under  permanent  law  and  order,  and 
after  preserving  cohesion,  (ensemble- Individuality,)  at 
all  hazards,  to  vitalize  man's  free  play  of  special  Per- 
sonalism,  recognizing  in  it  something  that  calls  ever 
more  to  be  considered,  fed,  and  adopted  as  the  substra 
tum  for  the  best  that  belongs  to  us,  (government  indeed 
is  for  it,)  including  the  new  esthetics  of  our  future. 

To  formulate  beyond  this  present  vagueness — to  help 
line  and  put  before  us,  the  species,  or  a  specimen  of  the 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  41 

species,  of  the  Democratic  ethnology  of  the  future,  is  a 
work  toward  which  the  Genius  of  our  land,  with  pecu 
liar  encouragement,  invites  her  well-wishers.  Already, 
certain  limnings,  more  or  less  grotesque,  more  or  less 
fading  and  watery,  have  appeared.  We  too,  (repressing 
doubts  and  qualms,)  will  try  our  hand. 

Attempting  then,  however  crudely,  a  basic  model  or 
portrait  of  Personality,  for  general  use  for  the  manli 
ness  of  The  States,  (and  doubtless  that  is  most  useful 
which  is  most  simple,  comprehensive  for  all,  and  toned 
low  enough,)  we  should  prepare  the  canvas  well  before 
hand.  Parentage  must  consider  itself  in  advance. 
(Will  the  time  hasten  when  fatherhood  and  mother 
hood  shall  become  a  science — and  the  noblest  science  ?) 
To  our  model  a  clear-blooded,  strong-fibred  physique, 
is  indispensable  ;  the  questions  of  food,  drink,  air,  exer 
cise,  assimilation,  digestion,  can  never  be  intermitted. 
Out  of  these  we  descry  a  well-begotten  Selfhood — in 
youth,  fresh,  ardent,  emotional,  aspiring*,  full  of  adven 
ture  ;  at  maturity,  brave,  perceptive,  under  control, 
neither  too  talkative  nor  too  reticent,  neither  flippant 
nor  sombre  ;  of  the  bodily  figure,  the  movements  easy, 
the  complexion  showing  the  best  blood,  somewhat 
flushed,  breast  expanded,  an  erect  attitude,  a  voice 
whose  sound  outvies  music,  eyes  of  calm  and  steady 
gaze,  yet  capable  also  of  flashing — and  a  general  pres 
ence  that  holds  its  own  in  the  company  of  the  highest. 
For  it  is  native  Personality,  and  that  alone,  that  endows 
a  man  to  stand  before  Presidents  or  Generals,  or  in  any 
distinguished  collection,  with  aplomb  ;  and  not  Culture, 
or  any  knowledge  or  intellect  whatever. 

With  regard  to  the  mental-educational  part  of  our 
model,  enlargement  of  intellect,  stores  of  cephalic 
knowledge,  &c.,  the  concentration  thitherward  of  all 
the  customs  of  our  age,  especially  in  America,  is  so 
overweening,  and  provides  so  fully  for  that  part,  that, 
important  and  necessary  as  it  is,  it  really  needs  nothing 
from  us  here — except,  indeed,  a  phrase  of  warning  and 
restraint. 

Manners,  costumes,  too,  though  important,  we  need 
not  dwell  upon  here.  Like  beauty,  grace  of  motion, 


42  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAH. 

<fec.,  they  are  results.  Causes,  original  things,  being 
attended  to,  the  right  manners  unerringly  follow. 
Much  is  said,  among  artists,  of  the  grand  style,  as  if  it 
were  a  thing  by  itself.  When  a  man,  artist  or  whoever, 
has  health,  pride,  acuteness,  noble  aspirations,  he  has 
the  motive-elements  of  the  grandest  style.  The  rest  is 
but  manipulation,  (yet  that  is  no  small  matter.) 

— Leaving  still  unspecified  several  sterling  parts  of 
any  model  fit  for  the  future  Personality  of  America,  I 
must  not  fail,  again  and  ever,  to  pronounce  myself  on 
one,  probably  the  least  attended  to  in  modern  times — a 
hiatus,  indeed,  threatening  its  gloomiest  consequences 
after  us.  I  mean  the  simple,  unsophisticated  Conscience, 
the  primary  moral  element.  If  I  were  asked  to  specify 
in  what  quarter  lie  the  grounds  of  darkest  dread,  re 
specting  the  America  of  our  hopes,  I  should  have  to 
point  to  this  particular.  I  should  demand  the  invaria 
ble  application  to  Individuality,  this  day,  and  any  day, 
of  that  old,  ever-true  plumb-rule  of  persons,  eras,  na 
tions.  Our  triumphant  modern  Civilizee,  with  his  all- 
schooling  and  his  wondrous  appliances,  will  still  show 
himself  but  an  amputation  while  this  deficiency  remains. 

Beyond,  (assuming  a  more  hopeful  tone,)  the  verte- 
bration  of  the  manly  and  w^omanly  Personalism  of  our 
Western  World,  can  only  be,  and  is,  indeed,  to  be,  (I 
hope,)  its  all  penetrating  Religiousness.  The  architec 
ture  of  Individuality  will  ever  prove  various,  with  count 
less  different  combinations  ;  but  here  they  rise  as  into 
common  pinnacles,  some  higher,  some  less  high,  only 
all  pointing  upward. 

Indeed,  the  ripeness  of  Religion  is  doubtless  to  bo 
looked  for  in  this  field  of  Individuality,  and  is  a  result 
that  no  organization  or  church  can  ever  achieve.  As 
history  is  poorly  retained  by  what  the  technists  call  his 
tory,  and  is  not  given  out  from  their  pages,  except  the 
learner  has  in  himself  the  sense  of  the  well-wrapt,  never 
yet  written,  perhaps  impossible  to  be  written,  history— 
so  Religion,  although  casually  arrested,  and,  after  a 
fashion,  preserved  in  the  churches  and  creeds,  does  not 
depend  at  all  upon  them,  but  is  a  part  of  the  identified 


•DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  43 

Soul,  which,  when  greatest,  knows  not  Bibles  in  the  old 
way,  but  in  new  ways — the  identified  Soul,  which  can 
really  confront  Religion  when  it  extricates  itself  entirely 
from  the  churches,  and  not  before. 

Personalism  fuses  this,  and  favors  it.  I  should  say, 
indeed,  that  only  in  the  perfect  uncontamination  and 
solitariness  of  Individuality  may  the  spirituality  of  Re 
ligion  positively  come  forth  at  all.  Only  here,  and  on 
such  terms,  the  meditation,  the  devout  ecstasy,  the 
soaring  flight.  Only  here,  communion  with  the  mys 
teries,  the  eternal  problems,  "Whence  ?  whither  ?  Alone, 
and  identity,  and  the  mood — and  the  Soul  emerges,  and 
all  statements,  churches,  sermons,  melt  away  like  va 
pors.  Alone,  and  silent  thought,  and  awe,  and  aspira 
tion — and  then  the  interior  consciousness,  like  a  hith 
erto  unseen  inscription,  in  magic  ink,  beams  out  its 
wondrous  lines  to  the  sense.  Bibles  may  convey,  and 
priests  expound,  but  it  is  exclusively  for  the  noiseless 
operation  of  one's  isolated  Self,  to  enter  the  pure  ether 
of  veneration,  reach  the  divine  levels,  and  commune 
with  the  unutterable. 

To  practically  enter  into  Politics  is  an  important  part 
of  American  personalism.  To  every  young  man,  North 
and  South,  earnestly  studying  these  things,  I  should 
here,  as  an  offset  to  what  I  have  said  in  former  pages, 
now  also  say,  that  may-be  to  views  of  very  largest 
scope,  after  all,  perhaps  the  political,  (and  perhaps  lit 
erary  and  sociological,)  America  goes  best  about  its 
development  its  own  way — sometimes,  to  temporary 
sight,  appalling  enough,  "it  is  the  fashion  among  dil- 
lettants  and  fops  to  decry  the  whole  formulation  and 
personnel  of  the  active  politics  of  America,  as  beyond 
redemption,  and  to  be  carefully  kept  away  from.  See 
you  that  you  do  not  fall  into  this  error.  America,  it 
may  be,  is  doing  very  well,  upon  the  whole,  notwith 
standing  these  antics  of  the  parties  and  their  leaders, 
these  half-brained  nominees,  and  the  many  ignorant 
ballots,  and  many  elected  failures  and  blatherers.  It  is 
the  dillettants,  and  all  who  shirk  their  duty,  who  are 
not  doing  well.  As  for  you,  I  advise  you  to  enter  more 


44  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS; 

strongly  yet  into  politics.  I  advise  every  young  man  to 
do  so.  Always  inform  yourself ;  always  do  the  best  you 
can  ;  always  vote.  Disengage  yourself  from  parties. 
They  have  been  useful,  and  to  some  extent  remain  so  ; 
but  the  floating,  uncommitted  electors,  farmers,  clerks, 
mechanics,  the  masters  of  parties — watching  aloof,  in 
clining  victory  this  side  or  that  side — such  are  the  ones 
most  needed,  present  and  future.  For  America,  if  eligi 
ble  at  all  to  downfall  and  ruin,  is  eligible  within  herself, 
not  without ;  for  I  see  clearly  that  the  combined  foreign 
world  could  not  beat  her  down.  But  these  savage, 
wolfish  parties  alarm  me.  Owning  no  law  but  their 
own  will,  more  and  more  combative,  less  and  less  toler 
ant  of  the  idea  of  ensemble  and  of  equal  brotherhood, 
the  perfect  equality  of  the  States,  the  ever-overarching 
American  ideas,  it  behooves  you  to  convey  yourself  im 
plicitly  to  no  party,  nor  submit  blindly  to  their  dic 
tators,  but  steadily  hold  yourself  judge  and  master 
over  all  of  them. 

— So  much,  (hastily  tossed  together,  and  leaving  far 
more  unsaid,)  for  an  ideal,  or  intimations  of  an  ideal, 
toward  American  manhood.  But  the  other  sex,  in  our 
land,  requires  at  least  a  basis  of  suggestion. 

I  have  seen  a  young  American  woman,  one  of  a  large 
family  of  daughters,  who,  some  years  since,  migrated 
from  her  meagre  country  home  to  one  of  the  northern 
cities,  to  gain  her  own  support.  She  soon  became  an 
expert  seamstress,  but  finding  the  employment  too  con 
fining  for  her  health  and  comfort,  she  went  boldly  to 
work,  for  others,  to  house-keep,  cook,  clean,  &c.  After 
trying  several  places,  she  fell  upon  one  where  she  was 
suited.  She  has  told  me  that  she  finds  nothing  de 
grading  in  her  position  ;  it  is  not  inconsistent  with 
personal  dignity,  self-respect,  and  the  respect  of  others. 
She  confers  benefits  and  receives  them.  She  has  good 
health  ;  her  presence  itself  is  healthy  and  bracing ;  her 
character  is  unstained ;  she  has  made  herself  under 
stood,  and  preserves  her  independence,  and  has  been 
able  to  help  her  parents  and  educate  and  get  places  for 
her  sisters  ;  and  her  course  of  life  is  not  without  oppor- 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  45 

tuiiities  for  mental  improvement,  and  of  much  quiet, 
uiicosting  happiness  and  love. 

I  have  seen  another  woman  who,  from  taste  and  ne 
cessity  conjoined,  has  gone  into  practical  affairs,  carries 
on  a  mechanical  business,  partly  works  at  it  herself, 
dashes  out  more  and  more  into  real  hardy  life,  is  not 
abashed  by  the  coarseness  of  the  contact,  knows  how 
to  be  firm  and  silent  at  the  same  time,  holds  her  own 
with  unvarying  coolness  and  decorum,  and  will  com 
pare,  any  day,  with  superior  carpenters,  farmers,  and 
even  boatmen  and  drivers.  For  all  that,  she  has  not 
lost  the  charm  of  the  womanly  nature,  but  preserves 
and  bears  it  fully,  though  through  such  rugged  pre 
sentation. 

Then  there  is  the  wife  of  a  mechanic,  mother  of  two 
children,  a  woman  of  merely  passable  English  educa 
tion,  but  of  fine  wit,  with  all  her  sex's  grace  and  intui 
tions,  who  exhibits,  indeed,  such  a  noble  female  Person 
ality,  that  I  am  fain  to  record  it  here.  Never  abnegating 
her  own  proper  independence,  but  always  genially  pre 
serving  it,  and  what  belongs  to  it — cooking,  washing, 
child-nursing,  house-tending,  she  beams  sunshine  out 
of  all  these  duties,  and  makes  them  illustrious.  Physi- 
ologicalty  sweet  and  sound,  loving  work,  practical,  she 
yet  knows  that  there  are  intervals,  however  few,  devoted 
to  recreation,  music,  leisure,  hospitality — and  affords 
such  intervals.  "Whatever  she  does,  and  wherever  she 
is,  that  charm,  that  indescribable  perfume  of  genuine 
womanhood,  attends  her,  goes  with  her,  exhales  from 
her,  which  belongs  of  right  to  all  the  sex,  and  is,  or 
ought  to  be,  the  invariable  atmosphere  and  common 
aureola  of  old  as  well  as  young. 

My  mother  has  described  to  me  a  resplendent  person, 
down  on  Long  Island,  whom  she  knew  years  ago,  in 
early  days.  She  was  known  by  the  name  of  the  Peace 
maker.  She  was  well  toward  eighty  years  old,  of  happy 
and  sunny  temperament,  had  always  lived  on  a  farm, 
was  very  neighborly,  sensible  and  discreet,  an  invari 
able  and  welcomed  favorite,  especially  with  young  mar 
ried  women.  She  had  numerous  children  and  grand 
children.  She  was  uneducated,  but  possessed  a  native 


46  DEMOCEATIC  VISTAS. 

dignity.  She  had  come  to  be  a  tacitly  agreed  upon 
domestic  regulator,  judge,  settler  of  difficulties,  shep 
herdess,  and  reconciler  in  the  land.  She  was  a  sight  to 
draw  near  and  look  upon,  with  her  large  figure,  her 
profuse  snow-white  hair,  dark  eyes,  clear  complexion^ 
sweet  breath,  and  peculiar  personal  magnetism. 

The  foregoing  portraits,  I  admit,  are  frightfully  out 
of  line  from  these  imported  models  of  womanly  Per 
sonality — the  stock  feminine  characters  of  the  current 
novelists,  or  of  the  foreign  court  poems,  (Ophelias, 
Enids,  Princesses,  or  Ladies  of  one  thing  or  another,) 
which  fill  the  envying  dreams  of  so  many  poor  girls, 
and  are  accepted  by  our  young  men,  too,  as  supreme 
ideals  of  feminine  excellence  to  be  sought  after.  But  I 
present  mine  just  for  a  change. 

Then  there  are  mutterings,  (we  will  not  now  stop  to 
heed  them  here,  but  they  must  be  heeded,)  of  some 
thing  more  revolutionary.  The  day  is  coming  when  the 
deep  questions  of  woman's  entrance  amid  the  arenas  of 
practical  life,  politics,  trades,  &c.,  will  not  only  be  ar 
gued  all  around  us,  but  may  be  put  to  decision,  and 
real  experiment. 

— Of  course,  in  These  States,  for  both  man  and 
woman,  we  must  entirely  recast  the  types  of  highest 
Personality  from  what  the  Oriental,  Feudal,  Ecclesias 
tical  worlds  bequeath  us,  and  which  yet  fully  possess 
the  imaginative  and  esthetic  fields  of  the  United  States, 
pictorial  and  melodramatic,  not  without  use  as  studies, 
but  making  sad  work,  and  forming  a  strange  anachron 
ism  upon  the  scenes  and  exigencies  around  us. 

Of  course,  the  old,  undying  elements  remain.  The 
task  is,  to  successfully  adjust  them  to  new  combina 
tions,  our  own  days.  Nor  is  this  so  incredible.  I  can 
conceive  a  community,  to-day  and  here,  in  which,  on  a 
sufficient  scale,  the  perfect  Personalities,  without  noise, 
meet ;  say  in  some  pleasant  Western  settlement  or  town, 
where  a  couple  of  hundred  best  men  and  women,  of 
ordinary  worldly  status,  have  by  luck  been  drawn  to 
gether,  with  nothing  extra  of  genius  or  wealth,  but  vir 
tuous,  chaste,  industrious,  cheerful,  resolute,  friendly, 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  47 

and  devout.  I  can  conceive  such  a  community  organ 
ized  in  running  order,  powers  judiciously  delegated, 
farming,  building,  trade,  courts,  mails,  schools,  elec 
tions,  all  attended  to ;  and  then  the  rest  of  life,  the 
main  thing,  freely  branching  and  blossoming  in  each 
individual,  and  bearing  golden  fruit.  I  can  see  there, 
in  every  young  and  old  man,  after  his  kind,  and  in  every 
woman  after  hers,  a  true  Personality,  developed,  exer 
cised  proportionately  in  body,  mind,  and  spirit.  I  can 
imagine  this  case  as  one  not  necessarily  rare  or  difficult, 
but  in  buoyant  accordance  with  the  municipal  and  gen 
eral  requirements  of  our  times.  And  I  can  realize  in 
it  the  culmination  of  something  better  than  any  stereo 
typed  eclat  of  history  or  poems.  Perhaps,  unsung,  un- 
dramatized,  unput  in  essays  or  biographies — perhaps 
even  some  such  community  already  exists,  in  Ohio,  Illi 
nois,  Missouri,  or  somewhere,  practically  fulfilling  itself, 
and  thus  outvying,  in  cheapest  vulgar  life,  all  that  has 
been  hitherto  shown  in  best  ideal  pictures. 

In  short,  and  to  sum  up,  America,  betaking  herself 
to  formative  action,  (as  it. is  about  time  for  more  solid 
achievement  and  less  windy  promise,)  must,  for  her 
purposes,  cease  to  recognize  a  theory  of  character 
grown  of  Feudal  aristocracies,  or  formed  by  merely 
esthetic  or  literary  standards,  or  from  any  ultramarine, 
full-dress  formulas  of  culture,  polish,  caste,  &c.,  and 
must  sternly  promulgate  her  own  new  standard,  yet 
old  enough,  and  accepting  the  old,  the  perennial,  ele 
ments,  and  combining  them  into  groups,  unities,  appro 
priate  to  the  modern,  the  democratic,  the  West,  and  to 
the  practical  occasions  and  needs  of  our  own  cities,  and 
of  the  agricultural  regions.  Ever  the  most  precious  in 
the  common.  Ever  the  fresh  breeze  of  field,  or  hill,  or 
lake,  is  more  than  any  palpitation  of  fans,  though  of 
ivory,  and  redolent  with  perfume  ;  and  the  air  is  more 
than  the  costliest  perfumes. 

And  now,  for  fear  of  mistake,  we  may  not  intermit  to 
beg  our  absolution  from  all  that  genuinely  is,  or  goes 
along  with,  even  Culture.  Pardon  us,  venerable  shade ! 
if  we  have  seemed  to  speak  lightly  of  your  office.  The 
whole  civilization  of  the  earth,  we  know,  is  yours,  with 


48  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

all  the  glory  and  the  light  thereof.  It  is,  indeed,  in 
your  own  spirit,  and  seeking  to  tally  the  loftiest  teach 
ings  of  it,  that  we  aim  these  poor  utterances.  For  you, 
too,  mighty  minister!  know  that  there  is  something 
greater  than  you,  namely,  the  fresh,  eternal  qualities  of 
Being.  From  them,  and  by  them,  as  you,  at  your  best, 
we,  too,  after  our  fashion,  when  art  and  conventions 
fail,  evoke  the  last,  the  needed  help,  to  vitalize  our 
country  and  our  days. 

Thus  we  pronounce  not  so  much  against  the  principle 
of  Culture ;  we  only  supervise  it,  and  promulge  along 
with  it,  as  deep,  perhaps  a  deeper,  principle.  As  we 
have  shown,  the  New  World,  including  in  itself  the  all- 
leveling  aggregate  of  Democracy,  we  show  it  also  in 
cluding  the  all-varied,  all-permittino-,  all-free  theorem 
of  Individuality,  and  erecting  therefor  a  lofty  and  hith 
erto  unoccupied  framework  or  platform,  broad  enough 
for  all,  eligible  to  every  farmer  and  mechanic — to  the 
female  equally  with  the  male — a  towering  Selfhood,  not 
physically  perfect  only — not  satisfied  with  the  mere 
mind's  and  learning's  stores,  but  Beligious,  possessing 
the  idea  of  the  Infinite,  (rudder  and  compass  sure  amid 
this  troublous  voyage,  o'er  darkest,  wildest  wave, 
through  stormiest  wind,  of  man's  or  nation's  progress,) 
— realizing,  above  the  rest,  that  known  humanity,  in 
deepest  sense,  is  fair  adhesion  to  Itself,  for  purposes 
beyond — and  that,  finally,  the  Personality  of  mortal  life 
is  most  important  with  reference  to  the  immortal,  the 
Unknown,  the  Spiritual,  the  only  permanently  real, 
which,  as  the  ocean  waits  for  and  receives  the  rivers, 
waits  for  us  each  and  all. 

Much  is  there,  yet,  demanding  line  and  outline  in  our 
Vistas,  not  only  on  these  topics,  but  others  quite  un 
written.  Indeed,  we  could  talk  the  matter,  and  expand 
it,  through  lifetime.  But  it  is  necessary  to  return  to 
our  original  premises.  In  view  of  them,  wo  have  again 
pointedly  to  confess  that  all  the  objective  grandeurs  of 
the  World,  for  highest  purposes,  yield  themselves  up, 
and  depend  on  mentality  alone.  Here,  and  here  only, 
all  balances,  all  rests.  For  the  mind,  which  alone  builds 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  49 

the  permanent  edifice,  haughtily  builds  it  to  itself.  By 
it,  with  what  follows  it,  are  conveyed  to  mortal  sense 
the  culminations  of  the  materialistic,  the  known,  and  a 
prophecy  of  the  unknown.  To  take  expression,  to  in 
carnate,  to  endow  a  Literature  with  grand  and  arche 
typal  models — to  fill  with  pride  and  love  the  utmost 
capacity,  and  to  achieve  spiritual  meanings,  and  sug 
gest  the  future — these,  and  these  only,  satisfy  the  soul. 
We  must  not  say  one  word  against  real  materials  ;  but 
the  wise  know  that  they  do  not  become  real  till  touched 
by  emotions,  the  mind.  Did  we  call  the  latter  impon 
derable  ?  Ah,  let  us  rather  proclaim  that  the  slightest 
song- tune,  the  countless  ephemera  of  passions  aroused  by 
orators  and  tale-tellers,  are  more  dense,  more  weighty 
than  the  engines  there  in  the  great  factories,  or  the 
granite  blocks  in  their  foundations. 

— Approaching  thus  the  momentous  spaces,  and  con 
sidering  with  reference  to  a  new  and  greater  Personal- 
ism,  the  needs  and  possibilities  of  American  imaginative 
literature,  through  the  medium-light  of  what  we  have 
already  broached,  it  will  at  once  be  appreciated  that  a 
vast  gulf  of  difference  separates  the  present  accepted 
condition  of  these  spaces,  inclusive  of  what  is  floating 
in  them,  from  any  condition  adjusted  to,  or  fit  for,  the 
world,  the  America,  there  sought  to  be  indicated,  and 
the  copious  races  of  complete  men  and  women,  down 
along  these  Vistas  crudely  outlined. 

It  is,  in  some  sort,  no  less  a  difference  than  lies  be 
tween  that  long-continued  nebular  state  and  vagueness 
of  the  astronomical  worlds,  compared  with  the  subse 
quent  state,  the  definitely-formed  worlds  themselves, 
duly  compacted,  clustering  in  systems,  hung  up  there, 
chandeliers  of  the  universe,  beholding  and  mutually  lit 
by  each  other's  lights,  serving  for  ground  of  all  sub 
stantial  foothold,  all  vulgar  uses — yet  serving  still  more 
as  an.  undying  chain  and  echelon  of  spiritual  proofs  and 
shows.  A  boundless  field  to  fill !  A  new  Creation,  with 
needed  orbic  works  launched  forth,  to  revolve  in  free 
and  lawful  circuits — to  move,  self-poised,  through  the 
ether,  and  shine,  like  heaven's  own  suns !  With  such, 
and  nothing  less,  we  suggest  that  New  World  Litera- 
3 


50  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

ture,  fit  to  rise  upon,  cohere,  and  signalize,  in  time, 
These  States. 

What,  however,  do  we  more  definitely  mean  by  New 
World  Literature  ?  Are  we  not  doing  well  enough  here 
already?  Are  not  the  United  States  this  day  busily 
using,  working,  more  printer's  type,  more  presses,  than 
any  other  country  ?  uttering  and  absorbing  "more  publi 
cations  than  any  other  ?  Do  not  our  publishers  fatten 
quicker  and  deeper  ?  (helping  themselves,  under  shelter 
of  a  delusive  and  sneaking  law,  or  rather  absence  of 
law,  to  most  of  their  forage,  poetical,  pictorial,  histori 
cal,  romantic,  even  comic,  without  money  and  without 
price — and  fiercely  resisting  even  the  timidest  proposal 
to  pay  for  it.) 

Many  will  come  under  this  delusion— but  my  purpose 
is  to  dispel  it.  I  say  that  a  nation  may  hold  and  circu 
late  rivers  and  oceans  of  very  readable  print,  journals, 
magazines,  novels,  library-books,  "poetry,"  &c. — such 
as  The  States  to-day  possess  and  circulate — of  unques 
tionable  aid  and  value — hundreds  of  new  volumes  an 
nually  composed  and  brought  out*  here,  respectable 
enough,  indeed  unsurpassed  in  smartness  and  erudi 
tion — with  further  hundreds,  or  rather  millions,  (as  by 
free  forage,  or  theft,  aforementioned,)  also  thrown  into 
the  market, — And  yet,  all  the  while,  the  said  nation, 
land,  strictly  speaking,  may  possess  110  literature  at  all. 

Repeating  our  inquiry,  What,  then,  do  we  mean  by 
real  literature?  especially,  the  American  literature  of 
the  future  ?  Hard  questions  to  meet.  The  clues  are 
inferential,  and  turn  us  to  the  past.  At  best,  we  can 
only  offer  suggestions,  comparisons,  circuits. 

— It  must  still  be  reiterated,  as,  for  the  purpose  of 
these  Memoranda,  the  deep  lesson  of  History  and  Time, 
that  all  else  in  the  contributions  of  a  nation  or  age, 
through  its  politics,  materials,  heroic  personalities,  mili 
tary  eclat,  &c.,  remains  crude,  and  defers,  in  any  close 
and  thorough-going  estimate,  until  vitalized  by  national, 
original  archetypes  in  literature.  They  only  put  the 
nation  in  form,  finally  tell  anything,  prove,  complete 
anything — perpetuate  anything.  Without  doubt,  come 


DEMOCEATIC  VISTAS.  51 

of  the  richest  and  most  powerful  and  populous  commu 
nities  of  the  antique  world,  and  some  of  the  grandest 
personalities  and  events,  have,  to  after  and  present 
times,  left  themselves  entirely  unbequeathed.  Doubt 
less,  greater  than  any  that  have  come  down  to  us,  were 
among  those  lands,  heroisms,  persons,  that  have  not 
come  down  to  us  at  all,  even  by  name,  date,  or  location. 
Others  have  arrived  safely,  as  from  voyages  over  wide, 
centuries-stretching  seas.  The  little  ships,  the  miracles 
that  have  buoyed  them,  and  by  incredible  chances  safely 
conveyed  them,  (or  the  best  of  them,  their  meaning  and 
essence,)  over  long  wastes,  darkness,  lethargy,  igno 
rance,  &c.,  have  been  a  few  inscriptions — a  few  im 
mortal  compositions,  small  in  size,  yet  compassing  what 
measureless  values  of  reminiscence,  contemporary  por 
traitures,  manners,  idioms  and  beliefs,  with  deepest  in 
ference,  hint  and  thought,  to  tie  and  touch  forever  the 
old,  new  body,  and  the  old,  new  soul.  These !  and  still 
these !  bearing  the  freight  so  dear — dearer  than  pride — 
dearer  than  love.  All  the  best  experience  of  humanity, 
folded,  saved,  freighted  to  us  here !  Some  of  these  tiny 
ships  we  call  Old  and  New  Testament,  Homer,  Eschylus, 
Plato,  Juvenal,  &c.  Precious  minims  !  I  think,  if  we 
were  forced  to  choose,  rather  than  have  you,  and  the 
likes  of  you,  and  what  belongs  to,  and  has  grown  of 
you,  blotted  out  and  gone,  we  could  better  afford,  ap 
palling  as  that  would  be,  to  lose  all  actual  ships,  this 
day  fastened  by  wharf,  or  floating  on  wave,  and  see 
them,  with  all  their  cargoes,  scuttled  and  sent  to  the 
bottom. 

Gathered  by  geniuses  of  city,  race,  or  age,  and  put  by 
them  in  highest  of  art's  forms,  namely,  the  literary  form, 
the  peculiar  combinations,  and  the  outshows  of  that  city, 
age,  or  race,  its  particular  modes  of  the  universal  attri 
butes  and  passions,  its  faiths,  heroes,  lovers  and  gods, 
wars,  traditions,  struggles,  crimes,  emotions,  joys,  (or 
the  subtle  spirit  of  these,)  having  been  passed  on  to  us 
to  illumine  our  own  selfhood,  and  its  experiences — what 
they  supply,  indispensable  and  highest,  if  taken  away, 
nothing  else  in  all  the  world's  boundless  store-houses 
could  make  up  to  us,  or  ever  again  return. 


52  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

For  us,  along  the  great  highways  of  time,  those  monu 
ments  stand — those  forms  of  majesty  and  beauty.  For 
us  those  beacons  burn  through  all  the  nights.  Un 
known  Egyptians,  graving  hieroglyphs  ;  Hindus,  with 
hymn  and  apothegm  and  endless  epic  ;  Hebrew  prophet, 
with  spirituality,  as  in  flashes  of  lightning,  conscience, 
like  red-hot  iron,  plaintive  songs  and  screams  of  ven 
geance  for  tyrannies  and  enslavement;  Christ,  with 
bent  head,  brooding  love  and  peace,  like  a  dove  ;  Greek, 
creating  eternal  shapes  of  physical  and  esthetic  propor 
tion  ;  Roman,  lord  of  satire,  the  sword,  and  the  codex ; — 
of  the  figures,  some  far-off  and  veiled,  others  nearer  and 
visible ;  Dante,  stalking  with  lean  form,  nothing  but 
fibre,  not  a  grain  of  superfluous  flesh  ;  Angelo,  and  the 
great  painters,  architects,  musicians ;  rich  Shakespeare, 
luxuriant  as  the  sun,  artist  and  singer  of  Feudalism  in 
its  sunset,  with  all  the  gorgeous  colors,  owner  thereof, 
and  using  them  at  will ; — and  so  to  such  as  German 
Kant  and  Hegel,  where  they,  though  near  us,  leaping 
over  the  ages,  sit  again,  impassive,  imperturbable,  like 
the  Egyptian  gods.  Of  these,  and  the  like  of  these,  is 
it  too  much,  indeed,  to  return  to  our  favorite  figure,  and 
view  them  as  orbs  and  systems  of  orbs,  moving  in  free 
paths  in  the  spaces  of  that  other  heaven,  the  kosmic  in 
tellect,  the  Soul? 

Ye  powerful  and  resplendent  ones !  ye  were,  in  your 
atmospheres,  grown  not  for  America,  but  rather  for  her 
foes,  the  Feudal  and  the  old — while  our  genius  is  Demo 
cratic  and  modern.  Yet  could  ye,  indeed,  but  breathe 
your  breath  of  life  into  our  New  World's  nostrils — not 
to  enslave  us,  as  now,  but,  for  our  needs,  to  breed  a 
spirit  like  your  own — perhaps,  (dare  we  to  say  it  ?)  to 
dominate,  even  destroy,  what  you  yourselves  have  left ! 
On  your  plane,  and  no  less,  but  even  higher  and  wider, 
will  I  mete  and  measure  for  our  wants  to-day  and  here. 
I  demand  races  of  orbic  bards,  with  unconditional,  un 
compromising  sway.  Come  forth,  sweet  democratic 
despots  of  the  west ! 

By  points  and  specimens  like  these  we,  in  reflection, 
token  what  we  mean  by  any  land's  or  people's  genuine 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  53 

literature.  And  thus  compared  and  tested,  judging 
amid  the  influence  of  loftiest  products  only,  what  do 
our  current  copious  fields  of  print,  covering,  in  mani 
fold  forms,  the  United  States,  better,  for  an  analogy, 
present,  than,  as  in  certain  regions  of  the  sea,  those 
spreading,  undulating  masses  of  squid,  through  which 
the  whale,  swimming  with  head  half  out,  feeds  ? 

Not  but  that  doubtless  our  current  so-called  litera 
ture,  (like  an  endless  supply  of  small  coin,)  performs  a. 
certain  service,  and  may-be,  too,  the  service  needed  for 
the  time,  (the  preparation  service,  as  children  learn  to 
spell.)  Everybody  reads,  and  truly  nearly  everybody 
writes,  either  books,  or  for  the  magazines  or  journals. 
The  matter  has  magnitude,  too,  after  a  sort.  There  is 
something  impressive  about  the  huge  editions  of  the 
dailies  and  weeklies,  the  mountain-stacks  of  white  paper 
piled  in  the  press-vaults,  and  the  proud,  crashing,  ten- 
cylinder  presses,  which  I  can  stand  and  watch  any  time 
by  the  half  hour.  Then,  (though  The  States  in  the  field 
of  Imagination  present  not  a  single  first-class  work,  not 
a  single  great  Literatus,)  the  main  objects,  to  amuse,  to 
titillate,  to  pass  away  time,  to  circulate  the  news  and 
rumors  of  news,  to  rhyme  and  read  rhyme,  are  yet  at 
tained,  and  on  a  scale  of  infinity.  To-day,  in  books,  in 
the  rivalry  of  writers,  especially  novelists,  success,  (so- 
called,)  is  for  him  or  her  who  strikes  the  mean  flat  aver 
age,  the  sensational  appetite  for  stimulus,  incident,  &c., 
and  depicts,  to  the  common  calibre,  sensual,  exterior 
life.  To  such,  or  the  luckiest  of  them,  as  we  see,  the 
audiences  are  limitless  and  profitable ;  but  they  cease 
presently.  While,  this  day  or  any  day,  to  workmen, 
portraying  interior  or  spiritual  life,  the  audiences  were 
limited,  and  often  laggard — but  they  last  forever. 

— Compared  with  the  past,  our  modern  science  soars, 
and  our  journals  serve;  but  ideal  and  even  ordinary 
romantic  literature  does  not,  I  think,  substantially  ad 
vance.  Behold  the  prolific  brood  of  the  contemporary 
novel,  magazine-tale,  theatre-play,  &c.  The  same  end 
less  thread  of  tangled  and  superlative  love-story,  in 
herited,  apparently,  from  the  Amadises  and  Palmerins 
of  the  13th,  14th  and  15th  centuries  over  there  in  Eu- 


54  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

rope.  The  costumes  and  associations  are  brought  clown 
to  date,  the  seasoning  is  hotter  and  more  varied,  the 
dragons  and  ogres  are  left  out — but  the  thing,  I  should 
say,  has  not  advanced — is  just  as  sensational,  just  as 
strained — remains  about  the  same,  nor  more,  nor  less. 

—What  is  the  reason,  our  time,  our  lands,  that  we 
see  no  fresh  local  courage,  sanity,  of  our  own— the  Mis 
sissippi,  stalwart  Western  men,  real  mental  and  physical 
facts,  Southerners,  &c.,  in  the  body  of  our  literature  ? 
especially  the  poetic  part  of  it.  But  always,  instead,  a 
parcel  of  dandies  and  ennuyees,  dapper  little  gentlemen 
from  abroad,  who  flood  us  with  their  thin  sentiment 
of  parlors,  parasols,  piano-songs,  tinkling  rhymes,  the 
five-hundredth  importation,  or  whimpering  and  crying 
about  something,  chasing  one  aborted  conceit  after  an 
other,  and  forever  occupied  in  dyspeptic  amours  with 
dyspeptic  women. 

While,  current  and  novel,  the  grandest  events  and 
revolutions,  and  stormiest  passions  of  history,  are  cross 
ing  to-day  with  unparalleled  rapidity  and  magnificence 
over  the  stages  of  our  own  and  all  the  continents,  offer 
ing  new  materials,  opening  new  vistas,  with  largest 
needs,  inviting  the  daring  launching  forth  of  concep 
tions  in  Literature,  inspired  by  them,  soaring  in  highest 
regions,  serving  Art  in  its  highest,  (which  is  only  the 
other  name  for  serving  God,  and  serving  Humanity,) 
where  is  the  man  of  letters,  where  is  the  book,  with  any 
nobler  aim  than  to  follow  in  the  old  track,  repeat  what 
has  been  said  before — and,  as  its  utmost  triumph,  sell 
well,  and  be  erudite  or  elegant  ? 

.  Mark  the  roads,  the  processes,  through  which  These 
States  have  arrived,  standing  easy,  ever-equal,  ever- 
compact,  in  their  range,  to-day.  European  adven 
tures?  the  most  antique?  Asiatic  or  African?  old 
history — miracles — romances?  Kather,  our  own  un 
questioned  facts.  They  hasten,  incredible,  blazing 
bright  as  fire.  From  the  deeds  and  days  of  Columbus 
down  to  the  present,  and  including  the  present— and 
especially  the  late  Secession  war — when  I  con  them,  I 
feel,  every  leaf,  like  stopping  to  see  if  I  have  not  made 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  55 

a  mistake,  and  fallen  upon  the  splendid  figments  of 
some  dream. 

But  it  is  no  dream.  We  stand,  live,  move,  in  the 
huge  flow  of  our  age's  materialism — in  its  spirituality. 
We  have  had  founded  for  us  the  most  positive  of  lands. 
The  founders  have  passed  to  other  spheres — But  what 
are  these  terrible  duties  they  have  left  us  ? 

Their  politics  the  United  States  have,  in  my  opinion, 
with  all  their  faults,  already  substantially  established, 
for  good,  on  their  own  native,  sound,  long-vista'd  prin 
ciples,  never  to  be  overturned,  offering  a  sure  basis  for 
all  the  rest.  With  that,  their  future  religious  forms, 
sociology,  literature,  teachers,  schools,  costumes,  &c., 
are  of  course  to  make  a  compact  whole,  uniform,  on 
tallying  principles.  For  how  can  we  remain,  divided, 
contradicting  ourselves,  this  way  ?  *  I  say  we  can  only 
attain  harmony  and  stability  by  consulting  ensemble, 
and  the  ethic  purports,  and  faithfully  building  upon 
them. 

For  the  New  World,  indeed,  after  two  grand  stages 
of  preparation-strata,  I  perceive  that  now,  a  third  stage, 
being  ready  for,  (and  without  which  the  other  two  were 
useless,)  with  unmistakable  signs  appears.  The  First 
Stage  was  the  planning  and  putting  on  record  the  po 
litical  foundation  rights  of  immense  masses  of  people — 
indeed  all  people — in  the  organization  of  ^Republican 
National,  State,  and  Municipal  governments,  all  con 
structed  with  reference  to  each,  and  each  to  all.  This 
is  the  American  programme,  not  for  classes,  but  for 
universal  man,  and  is  embodied  in  the  compacts  of  the 


*  Note,  to-day,  an  instructive,  curious  spectacle  and  conflict. 
Science,  (twin,  in  its  fields,  of  Democracy  in  its) — Science,  testing 
absolutely  all  thoughts,  all  works,  has  already  burst  well  upon 
the  world — a  Sun,  mounting,  most  illuminating,  most  glorious — 
surely  never  again  to  set.  But  against  it,  deeply  entrenched, 
holding  possession,  yet  remains,  (not  only  through  the  churches 
and  schools,  but  by  imaginative  literature,  and  unregenerate 
poetry,)  the  fossil  theology  of  the  mythic-materialistic,  supersti 
tious,  untaught  and  credulous,  fable-loving,  primitive  ages  of  hu 
manity. 


56  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

Declaration  of  Independence,  and,  as  it  began  and  has 
now  grown,  with  its  amendments,  the  Federal  Consti 
tution — and  in  the  State  governments,  with  all  their 
interiors,  and  with  general  suffrage  ;  those  having  the 
sense  not  only  of  what  is  in  themselves,  but  that  their 
certain  several  things  started,  planted,  hundreds  of 
others,  in  the  same  direction,  duly  arise  and  follow. 
The  Second  Stage  relates  to  material  prosperity,  wealth, 
produce,  labor-saving  machines,  iron,  cotton,  local,  State 
and  continental  railways,  intercommunication  and  trade 
with  all  lands,  steamships,  mining,  general  employment, 
organization  of  great  cities,  cheap  appliances  for  com 
fort,  numberless  technical  schools,  books,  newspapers, 
a  currency  for  money  circulation,  &c.  The  Third  Stage, 
rising  out  of  the  previous  ones,  to  make  them  and  all 
illustrious,  I,  now,  for  one,  prornulge,  announcing  a  na 
tive  Expression  Spirit,  getting  into  form,  adult,  and 
through  mentality,  for  These  States,  self-contained,  dif 
ferent  from  others,  more  expansive,  more  rich  and  free, 
to  be  evidenced  by  original  authors  and  poets  to  come, 
by  American  personalities,  plenty  of  them,  male  and 
female,  traversing  the  States,  none  e^cepted— and  by 
native  superber  tableaux  and  growths  of  language, 
songs,  operas,  orations,  lectures,  architecture — and  by 
a  sublime  and  serious  Religious  Democracy  sternly 
taking  command,  dissolving  the  old,  sloughing  off  sur 
faces,  and  from  its  own  interior  and  vital  principles, 
entirely  reconstructing  Society. 

— For  America,  type  of  progress,  and  of  essential 
faith  in  Man — above  all  his  errors  and  wickedness — 
few  suspect  how  deep,  how  deep  it  really  strikes.  The 
world  evidently  supposes,  and  we  have  evidently  sup 
posed  so  too,  that  The  States  are  merely  to  achieve  the 
equal  franchise,  an  elective  government — to  inaugurate 
the  respectability  of  labor,  and  become  a  nation  of  prac 
tical  operatives,  law-abiding,  orderly  and  well-off.  Yes, 
those  are  indee'd  parts  of  the  tasks  of  America;  but 
they  not  only  do  not  exhaust  the  progressive  concep 
tion,  but  rather  arise,  teeming  with  it,  as  the  mediums 
of  deeper,  higher  progress.  Daughter  of  a  physical 
revolution — Mother  of  the  true  revolutions,  which  arc 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  57 

of  the  interior  life,  and  of  the  arts.  For  so  long  as  the 
spirit  is  not  changed,  any  change  of  appearance  is  of  no 
avail. 

—The  old  men,  I  remember  as  a  boy,  were  always 
talking  of  American  Independence.  What  is  independ 
ence  ?  Freedom  from  all  laws  or  bonds  except  those  of 
one's  own  being,  controlled  by  the  universal  ones.  To 
lands,  to  man,  to  woman,  what  is  there  at  last  to  each, 
but  the  inherent  soul,  nativity,  idiocrasy,  free,  highest- 
poised,  soaring  its  own  flight,  following  out  itself? 

— At  present,  These  States,  in  their  theology  and  so 
cial  standards,  &c.,  (of  greater  importance  than  their 
political  institutions,)  are  entirely  held  possession  of  by 
foreign  lands.  We  see  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the 
New  World,  ignorant  of  its  genius,  not  yefc  inaugurating 
the  native,  the  universal,  and  the  near,  still  importing 
the  distant,  the  partial,  and  the  dead.  We  see  London, 
Paris,  Italy — not  original,  superb,  as  where  they  be 
long — but  second-hand  here  where  they  do  not  belong. 
We  see  the  shreds  of  Hebrews,  Romans,  Greeks ;  but 
where,  on  her  own  soil,  do  we  see,  in  any  faithful,  high 
est,  proud  expression,  America  herself?  I  sometimes 
question  whether  she  has  a  corner  in  her  own  house. 

Not  but  that  in  one  sense,  and  a  very  grand  one,  good 
theology,  good  Art,  or  good  Literature,  has  certain  fea 
tures  shared  in  common.  The  combination  fraternizes, 
ties  the  races — is,  in  many  particulars,  under  laws  appli 
cable  indifferently  to  all,  irrespective  of  climate  or  date, 
and,  from  whatever  source,  appeals  to  emotions,  pride, 
love,  spirituality,  common  to  humankind.  Neverthe 
less,  they  touch  a  man  closest,  (perhaps  only  actually 
touch  him,)  even  in  these,  in  their  expression  through 
autochthonic  lights  and  shades,  flavors,  fondnesses, 
aversions,  specific  incidents,  illustrations,  out  of  his  own 
nationality,  geography,  surroundings,  antecedents,  &c. 
The  spirit  and  the  form  are  one,  and  depend  far  more 
on  association,  identity  and  place,  than  is  supposed. 
Subtly  interwoven  with  the  materiality  and  personality 
of  a  land,  a  race — Teuton,  Turk,  Californian,  or  what 
not — there  is  always  something — I  can  hardly  tell  what 


58  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

it  is, — History  but  describes  the  results  of  it, — it  is  the 
same  as  the  untellable  look  of  some  human  faces.  Na 
ture,  too,  in  her  stolid  forms,  is  full  of  it — but  to  most 
it  is  there  a  secret.  This  something  is  rooted  in  the  in 
visible  roots,  the  profoundest  meanings  of  that  place, 
race,  or  nationality  ;  and  to  absorb  and  again  effuse  it, 
uttering  words  and  products  as  from  its  midst,  and  car 
rying  it  into  highest  regions,  is  the  work,  or  a  main  part 
of  the  work,  of  any  country's  true  author,  poet,  histo 
rian,  lecturer,  and  perhaps  even  priest  and  philosoph. 
Here,  and  here  only,  are  the  foundations  for  our  really 
valuable  and  permanent  verse,  drama,  &c. 

But  at  present,  (judged  by  any  higher  scale  than  that 
which  finds  the  chief  ends  of  existence  to  be  to  fever 
ishly  make  money  during  one-half  of  it,  and  by  some 
"  amusement,"  or  perhaps  foreign  travel,  flippantly  kill 
time,  the  other  half,)  and  considered  with  reference  to 
purposes  of  patriotism,  health,  a  noble  Personality,  re 
ligion,  and  the  democratic  adjustments,  all  these  swarms 
of  poems,  dramatic  plays,  resultant  so  far  from  Ameri 
can  intellect,  and  the  formulation  of  our  best  ideas,  are 
useless  and  a  mockery.  They  strengthen  and  nourish 
no  one,  express  nothing  characteristic,  give  decision  and 
purpose  to  no  one,  and  suffice  only  the  lowest  level  of 
vacant  minds. 

Of  the  question,  indeed,  of  what  is  called  the  Drama, 
or  dramatic  presentation  in  the  United  States,  as  now 
put  forth  at  the  theatres,  I  should  say  it  deserves  to  be 
treated  with  the  same  gravity,  and  on  a  par  with  the 
questions  of  ornamental  confectionery  at  public  dinners, 
or  the  arrangement  of  curtains  and  hangings  in  a  ball 
room — nor  more,  nor  less. 

Of  the  other,  I  will  not  insult  the  reader's  intelli 
gence,  (once  really  entering  into  the  atmosphere  of 
these  Vistas,)  by  supposing  it  necessary  to  show,  in  de 
tail,  why  the  copious  dribble,  either  of  our  little  or  well- 
known  rhymesters,  does  not  fulfil,  in  any  respect,  the 
needs  and  august  occasions  of  this  land.  America  de 
mands  a  Poetry  that  is  bold,  modern,  and  all-surround 
ing  and  kosmical,  as  she  is  herself.  It  must  in  no  re 
spect  ignore  science  or  the  modern,  but  inspire  itself 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  59 

with  science  and  the  modern.  It  must  bend  its  vision 
toward  the  future,  more  than  the  past.  Like  America, 
it  must  extricate  itself  from  even  the  greatest  models 
of  the  past,  and,  while  courteous  to  them,  must  have 
entire  faith  in  itself  and  products  out  of  its  own  origi 
nal  spirit  only.  Like  her,  it  must  place  in  the  van,  and 
hold  up  at  all  hazards,  the  banner  of  the  divine  pride 
of  man  in  himself,  (the  radical  foundation  of  the  new 
religion.)  Long  enough  have  the  People  been  listening 
to  poems  in  which  common  Humanity,  deferential,  bends 
low,  humiliated,  acknowledging  superiors.  But  America 
listens  to  no  such  poems.  Erect,  inflated,  and  fully  self- 
esteeming  be  the  chant ;  and  then  America  will  listen 
with  pleased  ears. 

— Nor  may  the  genuine  gold,  the  gems,  when  brought 
to  light  at  last,  be  probably  ushered  forth  from  any  of 
the  quarters  currently  counted  on.  To-day,  doubtless, 
the  infant  Genius  of  American  poetic  expression,  (elud 
ing  those  highly-refined  imported  and  gilt-edged  themes, 
and  sentimental  arid  butterfly  flights,  pleasant  to  New 
York,  Boston,  and  Philadelphia  publisher^ — causing 
tender  spasms  in  the  coteries,  and  warranted  not  to 
chafe  the  sensitive  cuticle  of  the  most  exquisitely  artifi 
cial  gossamer  delicacy,)  lies  sleeping  far  away,  happily 
unrecognized  and  uninjured  by  the  coteries,  the  art- 
writers,  the  talkers  and  critics  of  the  saloons,  or  the 
lecturers  in  the  colleges — lies  sleeping,  aside,  unreck- 
ing  itself,  in  some  "Western  idiom,  or  native  Michigan 
or  Tennessee  repartee,  or  stump-speech — or  in  Ken 
tucky  or  Georgia  or  the  Carolinas — or  in  some  slang  or 
local  song  or  allusion  of  the  Manhattan,  Boston,  Phila 
delphia  or  Baltimore  mechanic — or  up  in  the  Maine 
woods — or  off  in  the  hut  of  the  California  miner,  or 
crossing  the  Rocky  mountains,  or  along  the  Pacific  rail 
road—or  on  the  breasts  of  the  young  farmers  of  the 
Northwest,  or  Canada,  or  boatmen  of  the  lakes.  Rude 
and  coarse  nursing-beds  these  ;  but  only  from  such  be 
ginnings  and  stocks,  indigenous  here,  may  haply  arrive, 
be  grafted,  and  sprout,  in  time,  flowers  of  genuine  Amer 
ican  aroma,  and  fruits  truly  and  fully  our  own. 

— I  say  it  were  a  standing  disgrace  to  These  States — 


GO  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

I  say  it  were  a  disgrace  to  any  nation,  distinguished 
above  others  by  the  variety  and  vastness  of  its  territo  - 
ries,  its  materials,  its  inventive  activity,  and  the  splendid 
practicality  of  its  people,  not  to  rise  and  soar  above 
others  also  in  its  original  styles  in  literature  and  art, 
and  its  own  supply  of  intellectual  and  esthetic  master 
pieces,  archetypal,  and  consistent  with  itself.  I  know 
not  a  land  except  ours  that  has  not,  to  some  extent, 
however  small,  made  its  title  clear.  The  Scotch  have 
their  born  ballads,  tunes  subtly  expressing  their  past 
and  present,  and  expressing  character.  The  Irish  have 
theirs.  England;  Italy,  France,  Spain,  theirs.  What 
has  America?  With  exhaustless  mines  of  the  richest 
ore  of  epic,  lyric,  tale,  tune,  picture,  &c.,  in  the  Four 
Years'  War  ;  with,  indeed,  I  sometimes  think,  the  richest 
masses  of  material  ever  afforded  a  nation,  more  varie 
gated,  and  on  a  larger  scale — the  first  sign  of  propor 
tionate,  native,  imaginative  Soul,  and  first-class  works 
to  match,  is,  (I  cannot  too  often  repeat,)  so  far  wanting. 

When  the  hundredth  year  of  this  Union  arrives,  there 
will  be  some  Forty  to  Fifty  great  States,  among  them 
Canada  and  Cuba.  The  population  will  be  sixty  or  sev 
enty  millions.  The  Pacific  will  be  ours,  and  the  Atlantic 
mainly  ours.  There  will  be  daily  electric  communica 
tion  with  every  part  of  the  globe.  What  an  age !  What 
a  land!  Where,  elsewhere,  one  so  great?  The  Indi 
viduality  of  one  nation  must  then,  as  always,  lead  the 
world.  Can  there  be  any  doubt  who  the  leader  ought 
to  be  ?  Bear  in  mind,  though,  that  nothing  less  than 
the  mightiest  original  non-subordinated  SOUL  has  ever 
really,  gloriously  led,  or  ever  can  lead.  (This  Soul — 
its  other  name,  in  these  Vistas,  is  LITERATURE.) 

In  fond  fancy  leaping  those  hundred  years  ahead,  let 
us  survey  America's  works,  poems,  philosophies,  fulfill 
ing  prophecies,  and  giving  form  and  decision  to  best 
ideals.  Much  that  is  now  undreamed  of,  we  might  then 
perhaps  see  established,  luxuriantly  cropping  forth,  rich 
ness,  vigor  of  letters  and  of  artistic  expression,  in  whose 
products  character  will  be  a  main  requirement,  and  not 
merely  erudition  or  elegance. 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  61 

Intense  and  loving  comradeship,  the  personal  and 
passionate  attachment  of  man  to  man — which,  hard  to 
define,  underlies  the  lessons  and  ideals  of  the  profound 
saviours  of  every  land  and  age,  and  which  seems  to 
promise,  when  thoroughly  developed,  cultivated  and 
recognized  in  manners  and  Literature,  the  most  sub 
stantial  hope  and  safety  of  the  future  of  These  States, 
will  then  be  fully  expressed.* 

A  strong-fibred  Joyousness,  and  Faith,  and  the  sense 
of  Health  al  fresco,  may  well  enter  into  the  preparation 
of  future  noble  American  authorship.  Part  of  the  test 
of  a  great  Literatus  shall  be  the  absence  in  him  of  tho 
idea  of  the  covert,  the  artificial,  the  lurid,  the  malefi 
cent,  the  devil,  the  grim  estimates  inherited  from  the 
Puritans,  hell,  natural  depravity,  and  the  like.  The 
great  Literatus  will  be  known,  among  the  rest,  by  his 
cheerful  simplicity,  his  adherence  to  natural  standards, 
his  limitless  faith  in  God,  his  reverence,  and  by  the  ab 
sence  in  him  of  doubt,  ennui,  burlesque,  persiflage,  or 
any  strained  and  temporary  fashion. 

Nor  must  I  fail,  again  and  yet  again,  to  clinch,  reit 
erate  more  plainly  still,  (O  that  indeed  such  survey  as 
we  fancy,  may  show  in  time  this  part  completed  also!) 
the  lofty  aim,  surely  the  proudest  and  the  purest,  in 
whose  service  the  future  Literatus,  of  whatever  field, 
may  gladly  labor.  As  we  have  intimated,  offsetting  the 


*  It  is  to  the  development,  identification,  and  general  prevalence 
of  that  fervid  comradeship,  (the  adhesive  love,  at  least  rivaling  the 
amative  love  hitherto  possessing  imaginative  literature,  if  not 
going  beyond  it,)  that  I  look  for  the  counterbalance  and  offset  of 
our  materialistic  and  vulgar  American  Democracy,  and  for  the 
spiritualization  thereof.  Many  will  say  it  is  a  dream,  and  will 
not  follow  my  inferences ;  but  I  confidently  expect  a  time  when 
there  will  be  seen,  running  like  a  half-hid  warp  through  all  the 
myriad  audible  and  visible  worldly  interests  of  America,  threads 
of  manly  friendship,  fond  and  loving,  pure  and  sweet,  strong  and 
life-long,  carried  to  degrees  hitherto  unknown — not  only  giving 
tone  to  individual  character,  and  making  it  unprecedently  emo 
tional,  muscular,  heroic,  and  refined,  but  having  deepest  relations 
to  general  politics.  I  say  Democracy  infers  such  loving  comrade 
ship,  as  its  most  inevitable  twin  or  counterpart,  without  which  it 
will  be  incomplete,  in  vain,  and  incapable  of  perpetuating  itself. 


62  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

material  civilization  of  our  race,  our  Nationality,  its 
wealth,  territories,  factories,  population,  luxuries,  pro 
ducts,  trade,  and  military  and  naval  strength,  and 
breathing  breath  of  life  into  all  these,  and  more,  must 
be  its  Moral  Civilization — the  formulation,  expression, 
and  aidancy" whereof,  is  the  very  highest  height  of  lit 
erature.  And  still  within  this  wheel,  revolves  another 
wheel.  The  climax  of  this  loftiest  range  of  modern 
civilization,  giving  finish  and  hue,  and  rising  above  all 
the  gorgeous  shows  and  results  of  wealth,  intellect, 
power,  and  art,  as  such — above  even  theology  and  reli 
gious  fervor — is  to  be  its  development,  from  the  eternal 
bases,  and  the  fit  expression,  of  absolute  Conscience, 
moral  soundness,  Justice.  I  say  there  is  nothing  else 
higher,  for  Nation,  Individual,  or  for  Literature,  than 
the  idea,  and  practical  realization  and  expression  of  the 
idea,  of  Conscience,  kept  at  topmost  mark,  absolute  in 
itself,  well  cultivated,  uncontaminated  by  the  manifold 
weeds,  the  cheats,  changes,  and  vulgarities  of  the  fash 
ions  of  the  world.  Even  in  religious  fervor  there  is  a 
touch  of  animal  heat.  But  moral  conscientiousness, 
crystalline,  without  flaw,  not  Godlike  only,  entirely 
Human,  awes  and  enchants  me  forever.  Great  is  emo 
tional  Love,  even  in  the  order  of  the  rational  universe. 
But,  if  we  must  make  gradations,  I  am  clear  there  is 
something  greater.  Power,  love,  veneration,  products, 
genius,  esthetics,  tried  by  subtlest  comparisons,  analyses, 
and  in  serenest  moods,  somewhere  fail,  somehow  be 
come  vain.  Then  noiseless,  with  flowing  steps,  the  lord, 
the  sun,  the  last  Ideal  comes.  By  the  names  Bight, 
Justice,  Truth,  we  suggest,  but  do  not  describe  it.  To 
the  world  of  men  it  remains  a  dream,  an  idea  as  they 
call  it.  But  no  dream  is  it  to  the  wise — but  the  proud 
est,  almost  only  solid  lasting  thing  of  all. 

I  say,  again  and  forever,  the  triumph  of  America's 
democratic  formules  is  to  be  the  inauguration,  growth, 
acceptance,  and  unmistakable  supremacy  among  indi 
viduals,  cities,  States,  and  the  Nation,  of  moral  Con 
science.  Its  analogy  in  the  material  universe  is  what 
holds  together  this  world,  and  every  object  upon  it,  and 
carries  its  dynamics  on  forever  sure  and  sale.  Its  lack, 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  63 

and  tlie  persistent  shirking  of  it,  as  in  life,  sociology, 
literature,  politics,  business,  and  even  sermonizing,  these 
times,  or  any  times,  still  leaves  the  abysm,  the  mortal 
flaw  and  smutch,  mocking  civilization  to-day,  with  all 
its  unquestioned  triumphs,  and  all  the  civilization  so 
far  known.  Such  is  the  thought  I  would  especially  be 
queath  to  any  earnest  persons,  students  of  these  Vistas, 
and  following  after  me.* 

Present  Literature,  while  magnificently  fulfilling  cer 
tain  popular  demands,  with  plenteous  knowledge  and 
verbal  smartness,  is  profoundly  sophisticated,  insane, 
and  its  very  joy  is  morbid.  It  needs  retain  the  knowl 
edge,  and  fulfil  the  demands,  but  needs  to  purge  itself ; 
or  rather  needs  to  be  born  again,  become  unsophisti 
cated,  and  become  sane.  It  needs  tally  and  express 
Nature,  and  the  spirit  of  Nature,  and  to  know  and  obey 
the  standards.  I  say  the  question  of  Nature,  largely 
considered,  involves  the  questions  of  the  esthetic,  the 
emotional,  and  the  religious — and  involves  happiness. 
A  fitly  born  and  bred  race,  growing  up  in  right  condi- 


*  I  am  reminded  as  I  write  that  out  of  this  very  Conscience,  or 
idea  of  Conscience,  of  intense  moral  right,  and  in  its  name  and 
strained  construction,  the  worst  fanaticisms,  wars,  persecutions, 
murders,  &c.,  have  yet,  in  all  lands,  been  broached,  and  have  come 
to  their  devilish  fruition.  Much  is  to  be  said — but  I  may  say 
here,  and  in  response,  that  side  by  side  with  the  unflagging-  stimu 
lation  of  the  elements  of  Religion  and  Conscience  must  henceforth 
move  with  equal  sway,  science,  absolute  reason,  and  the  general 
proportionate  development  of  the  whole  man.  These  scientific 
facts,  deductions,  are  divine  too — precious  counted  parts  of  moral 
civilization,  and,  with  physical  health,  indispensable  to  it,  to  pre 
vent  fanaticism.  For  Abstract  Religion,  I  perceive,  is  easily  led 
astray,  ever  credulous,  and  is  capable  of  devouring,  remorseless, 
like  fire  and  flame.  Conscience,  too,  isolated  from  all  else,  and 
from  the  emotional  nature,  may  but  attain  the  beauty  and  purity 
of  glacial,  snowy  ice.  We  want,  for  These  States,  for  the  general 
character,  a  cheerful,  religious  fervor,  enhued  with  the  ever-present 
modifications  of  the  human  emotions,  friendship,  benevolence, 
with  a  fair  field  for  scientific  inquiry,  the  right  of  individual 
judgment,  and  always  the  cooling  influences  of  material  Nature. 
We  want  not  again  either  the  religious  fervor  of  the  Spanish  In 
quisition,  nor  the  morality  of  the  New  England  Puritans. 


64  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

tions  of  out-door  as  much  as  in-door  harmony,  ac 
tivity,  and  development,  would  probably,  from  and  in 
those  conditions,  find  it  enough  merely  to  live — and 
would,  in  their  relations  to  the  sky,  air,  water,  trees, 
&c.,  and  to  the  countless  common  shows,  and  in  the 
fact  of  Life  itself,  discover  and  achieve  happiness — 
with  Beirg  suffused  night  and  day  by  wholesome 
extasy,  surpassing  all  the  pleasures  that  wealth,  amuse 
ment,  and  even  gratified  intellect,  erudition,  or  the  sense 
of  art,  can  give. 

In  the  prophetic  literature  of  These  States,  Nature, 
true  Nature,  and  the  true  idea  of  Nature,  long  absent, 
must,  above  all,  become  fully  restored,  enlarged,  and 
must  furnish  the  pervading  atmosphere  to  poems,  and 
the  test  of  all  high  literary  and  esthetic  compositions. 
I  do  not  mean  the  smooth  walks,  trimm'd  hedges,  but 
terflies,  poseys  and  nightingales  of  the  English  poets, 
but  the  whole  Orb,  with  its  geologic  history,  the  Kosmos, 
carrying  fire  and  snow,  that  rolls  through  the  illimitable 
areas,  light  as  a  feather,  though  weighing  billions  of 
tons.  Furthermore,  as  by  what  we  now  partially  call 
Nature  is  intended,  at  most,  only  what  is  entertainablo 
by  the  physical  conscience,  the  lessons  of  the  esthetic, 
tfie  sense  of  matter,  and  of  good  animal  health — 011 
these  it  must  be  distinctly  accumulated,  incorporated, 
that  man,  comprehending  these,  has,  in  towering  super- 
addition,  the  Moral  and  Spiritual  Consciences,  indi 
cating  his  destination  beyond  the  ostensible,  the  mortal. 

To  the  heights  of  such  estimate  of  Nature  indeed 
ascending,  we  proceed  to  make  observations  for  our 
Vistas,  breathing  rarest  air.  What  is,  I  believe  called 
Idealism  seems  to  me  to  suggest,  (guarding  against  ex 
travagance,  and  ever  modified  even  by  its  opposite,)  the 
course  of  inquiry  and  desert  of  favor  for  our  New  World 
metaphysics,  their  foundation  of  and  in  literature,  giv 
ing  hue  to  all.* 

*  The  culmination  and  fruit  of  literary  artistic  expression,  and 
its  final  fields  of  pleasure  for  the  human  soul,  are  in  Metaphysics, 
including  the  mysteries  qf  the  spiritual  world,  the  soul  itself,  and 
the  question  of  the  immortal  continuation  of  our  identity.  In  all 
ages,  the  mind  of  man  has  brought  up  here — and  always  will. 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  65 

The  elevating  and  etherealizing  ideas  of  the  Unknown 
and  of  Unreality  must  be  brought  forward  with  au- 

Here,  at  least,  of  whatever  race  or  era,  we  stand  on  common 
ground.  Applause,  too,  is  unanimous,  antique  or  modern.  Those 
authors  who  work  well  in  this  field — though  their  reward,  instead 
of  a  handsome  percentage,  or  royalty,  may  be  but  simply  the 
laurel-crown  of  the  victors  in  the  great  Olympic  games — will  be 
dearest  to  humanity,  and  their  works,  however  esthetically  defec 
tive,  will  be  treasured  forever.  The  altitude  of  literature  and 
poetry  has  always  been  Religion — and  always  will  be.  The  In 
dian  Vedas,  the  Nackas  of  Zoroaster,  The  Talmud  of  the  Jews, 
the  Old  Testament  also,  the  Gospel  of  Christ  and  his  disciples, 
Plato's  works,  the  Koran  of  Mohammed,  the  Edda  of  Snorro,  and 
so  on  toward  our  own  clay,  to  Swedenborg,  and  to  the  invaluable 
contributions  of  Leibnitz,  Kant  and  Hegel, — these,  with  such 
poems  only  in  which,  (while  singing  well  of  persons  and  events, 
of  the  passions  of  man,  and  the  shows  of  the  material  universe,) 
the  religious  tone,  the  consciousness  of  mystery,  the  recognition 
of  the  future,  of  the  unknown,  of  Deity,  over  and  under  all,  and 
of  the  divine  purpose,  are  never  absent,  but  indirectly  give  tone 
to  all — exhibit  literature's  real  heights  and  elevations,  towering 
up  like  the  great  mountains  of  the  earth. 

Standing  on  this  ground — the  last,  the  highest,  only  permanent 
ground — and  sternly  criticising,  from  it,  all  works,  either  of  the 
literary,  or  any  Art,  we  have  peremptorily  to  dismiss  every  pre- 
tensive  production,  however  fine  its  esthetic  or  intellectual  points, 
which  violates,  or  ignores,  or  even  does  not  celebrate,  the  central 
Divine  Idea  of  All,  suffusing  universe,  of  eternal  trains  of  purpose, 
in  the  development,  by  however  slow  degrees,  of  the  physical, 
moral,  and  spiritual  Kosmos.  I  say  he  has  studied,  meditated  to 
no  profit,  whatever  may  be  his  mere  erudition,  who  has  not  ab 
sorbed  this  simple  consciousness  and  faith.  It  is  not  entirely 
new — but  it  is  for  America  to  elaborate  it,  and  look  to  build  upon 
and  expand  from  it,  with  uncompromising  reliance.  Above  the 
doors  of  teaching  the  inscription  is  to  appear,  Though  little  or 
nothing  can  be  absolutely  known,  perceived,  except  from  a  point 
of  view  which  is  evanescent,  yet  we  know  at  least  one  perma 
nency,  that  Time  and  Space,  in  the  will  of  God,  furnish  successive 
chains,  completions  of  material  births  and  beginnings,  solve  all 
discrepancies,  fears  and  doubts,  and  eventually  fulfil  happiness — 
and  that  the  prophecy  of  those  births,  namely  Spiritual  results, 
throws  the  true  arch  over  all  teaching,  all  science.  The  local 
considerations  of  sin,  disease,  deformity,  ignorance,  death,  &c., 
and  their  measurement  by  superficial  mind,  and  ordinary  legisla 
tion  and  theology,  are  to  be  met  by  Science,  boldly  accepting, 
promulging  this  faith,  and  planting  the  seeds  of  superber  laws — 
of  the  explication  of  the  physical  universe  through  the  spiritual — 
and  clearing  the  way  for  a  Religion,  sweet  and  unimpugnable 
alike  to  little  child  or  great  savan. 


66  EEHOCKATIC  VISTAS. 

thority,  as  they  are  the  legitimate  heirs  of  the  known, 
and  of  reality,  and  at  least  as  great  as  their  parents. 
Fearless  of  scoffing,  and  of  the  ostent,  let  us  take  our 
stand,  onr  ground,  and  never  desert  it,  to  confront  the 
growing  excess  and  arrogance  of  Realism.  To  the  cry, 
now  victorious — the  cry  of  Sense,  science,  flesh,  in 
comes,  farms,  merchandise,  logic,  intellect,  demonstra 
tions,  solid  perpetuities,  buildings  of  brick  and  iron,  or 
even  the  facts  of  the  shows  of  trees,  earth,  rocks,  &c., 
fear  not  my  brethren,  my  sisters,  to  sound  out  with 
equally  determined  voice,  that  conviction  brooding 
within  the  recesses  of  every  envisioned  soul — Illusions ! 
apparitions!  figments  all!  True,  we  must  not  condemn 
the  show,  neither  absolutely  deny  it,  for  the  indispensa- 
bility  of  its  meanings  ;  but  how  clearly  we  see  that, 
migrate  in  soul  to  what  we  can  already  conceive  of  su 
perior  and  spiritual  points  of  view,  and,  palpable  as  it 
seems  under  present  relations,  it  all  and  several  might, 
nay  certainly  would,  fall  apart  and  vanish. 

— I  hail  with  joy  the  oceanic,  variegated,  intense 
practical  energy,  the  demand  for  facts,  even  the  busi 
ness  materialism  of  the  current  age,  Our  States.  But 
wo  to  the  age  or  land  in  which  these  things,  movements, 
stopping  at  themselves,  do  not  tend  to  ideas.  As  fuel 
to  flame,  and  flame  to  the  heavens,  so  must  wealth, 
science,  materialism,  unerringly  feed  the  highest  mind, 
the  soul.  Infinitude  the  flight :  fathomless  the  mystery. 
Man,  so  diminutive,  dilates  beyond  the  sensible  uni 
verse,  competes  with,  outcopes  Space  and  Time,  medi 
tating  even  one  great  idea.  Thus,  and  thus  only,  does 
a  human  being,  his  spirit,  ascend  above,  and  justify, 
objective  Nature,  which,  probably  nothing  in  itself,  is 
incredibly  and  divinely  serviceable,  indispensable,  real, 
here.  And  as  the  purport  of  objective  Nature  is  doubt 
less  folded,  hidden,  somewhere  here — As  somewhere 
here  is  what  this  globe  and  its  manifold  forms,  and  tho 
light  of  day,  and  night's  darkness,  and  life  itself,  with 
all  its  experiences,  are  for — it  is  here  the  great  Litera 
ture,  especially  verse,  must  get  its  inspiration  and  throb 
bing  blood.  Then  may  wo  attain  to  a  poetry  worthy 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  67 

the  immortal  soul  of  man,  and  which  while  absorbing 
materials,  and,  in  their  own  sense,  the  shows  of  Nature, 
will,  above  all,  have,  both  directly  and  indirectly,  a  free 
ing,  fluidizing,  expanding,  religious  character,  exulting 
with  science,  fructifying  the  moral  elements,  and  stimu 
lating  aspirations,  and  meditations  on  the  unknown. 

The  process,  so  far,  is  indirect  and  peculiar,  and 
though  it  may  be  suggested,  cannot  be  defined.  Ob 
serving,  rapport,  and  with  intuition,  the  shows  and 
forms  presented  by  Nature,  the  sensuous  luxuriance, 
the  beautiful  in  living  men  and  women,  the  actual  play 
of  passions,  in  history  and  life — and,  above  all,  from 
those  developments  either  in  Nature  or  human  person 
ality  in  which  power,  (dearest  of  all  to  the  sense  of  the 
artist,)  transacts  itself — Out  of  these,  and  seizing  what 
is  in  them,  the  poet,  the  esthetic  worker  in  any  field, 
by  the  divine  magic  of  his  genius,  projects  them,  their 
analogies,  by  curious  removes,  indirections,  in  Litera 
ture  and  Art.  (No  useless  attempt  to  repeat  the  mate 
rial  creation,  by  claguerreotyping  the  exact  likeness  by 
mortal  mental  means.)  This  is  the  image-making  fac 
ulty,  coping  with  material  creation,  and  rivaling,  almost 
triumphing  over  it.  This  alone,  when  all  the  other  parts 
of  a  specimen  of  literature  or  art  are  ready  and  waiting, 
can  breathe  into  it  the  breath  of  life,  and  endow  it  with 
Identity. 

"  The  true  question  to  ask/'  says  the  Librarian  of 
Congress  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Social  Science 
Convention  at  New  York,  October,  1869,  "The  true 
question  to  ask  respecting  a  book,  is,  Has  it  helped  any 
human  Soul  f"  This  is  the  hint,  statement,  not  only  of 
the  great  Literatus,  his  book,  but  of  every  great  Artist. 

It  may  be  that  all  works  of  art  are  to  be  first  tried  by 
their  art  qualities,  their  image-forming  talent,  and  their 
dramatic,  pictorial,  plot-constructing,  euphonious  and 
other  talents.  Then,  whenever  claiming  to  be  first-class 
works,  they  are  to  be  strictly  and  sternly  tried  by  their 
foundation  in,  and  radiation,  in  the  highest  sense,  and 
always  indirectly,  of  the  ethic  principles,  and  eligibility 
to  free,  arouse,  dilate. 

As  within  the  purposes  of  the  Kosmos,  and  vivifying 


68  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

all  meteorology,  and  all  the  congeries  of  the  mineral, 
Tegetable  and  animal  worlds — all  the  physical  growth 
and  development  of  man,  and  all  the  history  of  the  race 
in  politics,  religions,  wars,  &c.,  there  is  a  moral  purpose, 
a  visible  or  invisible  intention,  certainly  underlying  all — 
its  results  and  proof  needing  to  be  patiently  waited  for — 
needing  intuition,  faith,  idiosyncrasy,  to  its  realization, 
which  many,  and  especially  the  intellectual,  do  not  have 
— so  in  the  product,  or  congeries  of  the  product,  of  the 
greatest  Literatus.  This  is  the  last,  profoundest  meas 
ure  and  test  of  a  first-class  literary  or  esthetic  achieve 
ment,  and  when  understood  and  put  in  force  must  fain, 
I  say,  lead  to  works,  books,  nobler  than  any  hitherto 
known.  Lo !  Nature,  (the  only  complete,  actual  poem,) 
existing  calmly  in  the  divine  scheme,  containing  all, 
content,  careless  of  the  criticisms  of  a  day,  or  these 
endless  and  wordy  chatterers.  And  lo!  to  the  con 
sciousness  of  the  soul,  the  permanent  Identity,  the 
thought,  the  something,  before  which  the  magnitude 
even  of  Democracy,  Art,  Literature,  &c.,  dwindles,  be 
comes  partial,  measurable — something  that  fully  satis 
fies,  (which  those  do  not.)  That  something  is  the  All, 
and  the  idea  of  All,  with  the  accompanying  idea  of 
Eternity,  and  of  itself,  the  Soul,  buoyant,  indestructi 
ble,  sailing  space  forever,  visiting  every  region,  as  a 
ship  the  sea.  And  again  lo!  the  pulsations  in  all 
matter,  all  spirit,  throbbing  forever — the  eternal  beats, 
eternal  systole  and  diastole  of  life  in  things — where- 
from  I  feel  and  know  that  death  is  not  the  ending,  as 
was  thought,  but  rather  the  real  beginning — and  that 
nothing  ever  is  or  can  be  lost,  nor  ever  die,  nor  soul, 
nor  matter. 

— I  say  in  the  future  of  These  States  must  therefore 
arise  Poets  immenser  far,  and  make  great  poems  of 
Death.  The  poems  of  Life  are  great,  but  there  must 
be  the  poems  of  the  purports  of.  life,  not  only  in  itself, 
but  beyond  itself.  I  have  eulogized  Homer,  the  sacred 
bards  of  Jewry,  Eschylus,  Juvenal,  Shakespeare,  &CM 
and  acknowledged  their  inestimable  value.  But,  (with 
perhaps  the  exception,  in  some,  not  all  respects,  of  the 
second  mentioned,)  I  say  there  must,  for  future  and 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  G9 

Democratic  purposes,  appear  poets,  (dare  I  to  say  so  ?) 
of  higher  class  even  than  any  of  those — poets  not  only 

Eossessed  of  the  religious  fire  and  abandon  of  Isaiah, 
ixuriant  in  the  epic  talent  of  Homer,  or  for  characters 
as  Shakespeare,  but  consistent  with  the  Hegelian  for 
mulas,  and  consistent  with  modern  science.  America 
needs,  and  the  world  needs,  a  class  of  bards  who  will, 
now  and  ever,  so  link  and  tally  the  rational  physical 
being  of  man,  with  the  ensembles  of  Time  and  Space, 
and  with  this  vast  and  multiform  show,  Nature,  sur 
rounding  him,  ever  tantalizing  him,  equally  a  part,  and 
yet  not  a  part  of  him,  as  to  essentially  harmonize,  satisfy, 
and  put  at  rest.  Faith,  very  old,  now  scared  away  by 
science,  must  be  restored,  brought  back,  by  the  same 
power  that  caused  her  departure — restored  with  new 
sway,  deeper,  wider,  higher  than  ever.  Surely,  this  uni 
versal  ennui,  this  coward  fear,  this  shuddering  at  death, 
these  low,  degrading  views,  are  not  always  to  rule  the 
spirit  pervading  future  society,  as  it  has  the  past,  and 
does  the  present.  What  the  Roman  Lucretius  sought 
most  nobly,  yet  all  too  blindly,  negatively  to  do  for  his 
age  and  its  successors,  must  be  done  positively  by  some 
great  coming  Litoratus,  especially  Poet,  who,  while  re 
maining  fully  poet,  will  absorb  whatever  science  indi 
cates,  with  spiritualism,  and  out  of  them,  and  out  of 
his  own  genius,  will  compose  the  great  Poem  of  Death. 
Then  will  man  indeed  confront  Nature,  and  confront 
Time  and  Space,  both  with  science  and  con  amore,  and 
take  his  right  place,  prepared  for  life,  master  of  fortune 
and  misfortune.  And  then  that  which  was  long  wanted 
will  be  supplied,  and  the  ship  that  had  it  not  before  in 
all  her  voyages,  will  have  an  anchor. 

There  are  still  other  standards,  suggestions,  for  pro 
ducts  of  high  literatuses.  That  which  really  balances 
and  conserves  the  social  and  political  world  is  not  so 
much  legislation,  police,  treaties,  and  dread  of  punish 
ment,  as  the  latent  eternal  intuitional  sense,  in  human 
ity,  of  fairness,  manliness,  decorum,  &c.  Indeed,  the 
perennial  regulation,  control  and  oversight,  by  self-sup- 
pliance,  is  sine  qua  non  to  Democracy ;  and  a  highest, 


70  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

widest  aim  of  Democratic  literature  may  well  bo  to 
bring  forth,  cultivate,  brace  and  strengthen  this  sense 
in  individuals  and  society.  A  strong  mastership  of  the 
general  inferior  self  by  the  superior  self,  is  to  be  aided, 
secured,  indirectly  but  surely,  by  the  liter atus,  in  his 
works,  shaping,  for  individual  or  aggregate  Democracy, 
a  great  passionate  Body,  in  and  along  with  which  goes 
a  great  masterful  Spirit. 

And  still,  providing  for  contingencies,  I  fain  confront 
the  fact,  the  need  of  powerful  native  philosophs  and 
orators  and  bards,  These  States,  as  rallying  points  to 
come,  in  times  of  danger,  and  to  fend  off  ruin  and  de 
fection.  For  history  is  long,  long,  long.  Shift  and  turn 
the  combinations  of  the  statement  as  we  may,  the  prob 
lem  of  the  future  of  America  is  in  certain  respects  as 
dark  as  it  is  vast.  Pride,  competition,  segregation, 
vicious  wilfulness,  and  license  beyond  example,  brood 
already  upon  us.  Unwieldy  and  immense,  who  shall 
hold  in  behemoth  ?  who  bridle  leviathan  ?  Flaunt  it  as 
we  choose,  athwart  and  over  the  roads  of  our  progress 
loom  huge  uncertainty,  and  dreadful,  threatening  gloom. 
It  is  useless  to  deny  it  :  Democracy  grows  rankly  up  the 
thickest,  noxious,  deadliest  plants  and  fruits  of  all — 
brings  worse  and  worse  invaders — needs  newer,  larger, 
stronger,  keener  compensations  and  compellers. 

Our  lands,  embracing  so  much,  (embracing  indeed 
the  whole,  rejecting  none,)  hold  in  their  breast  that 
flame  also,  capable  of  consuming  themselves,  consuming 
us  all.  Short  as  the  span  of  our  national  life  has  been, 
already  have  death  and  downfall  crowded  close  upon 
us — and  will  again  crowd  close,  110  doubt,  even  if 
warded  off.  Ages  to  come  may  never  know,  but  I 
know,  how  narrowly,  during  the  late  Secession  war — 
and  more  than  once,  and  more  than  twice  or  thrice — 
our  Nationality,  (wherein  bound  up,  as  in  a  ship  in  a 
storm,  depended,  and  yet  depend,  all  our  best  life,  all 
hope,  all  value,)  just  grazed,  just  by  a  hair  escaped  de 
struction.  Alas!  to  think  of  them!  the  agony  and 
bloody  sweat  of  certain  of  those  hours!  those  cruel, 
sharp,  suspended  crises ! 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  71 

Even  to-day,  amid  these  whirls,  incredible  flippancy, 
the  blind  fury  of  parties,  infidelity,  entire  lack  of  first- 
class  captains  and  leaders,  added  to  the  plentiful  mean 
ness  and  vulgarity  of  the  ostensible  masses — that  prob 
lem,  the  Labor  Question,  beginning  to  open  like  a 
yawning  gulf,  rapidly  widening  every  year  * — what 
prospect  have  we  ?  We  sail  a  dangerous  sea  of  seeth 
ing  currents,  cross  and  under-currents,  vortices — all  so 
dark,  untried — and  whither  shah1  we  turn  ? 

It  seems  as  if  the  Almighty  had  spread  before  this 
Nation  charts  of  imperial  destinies,  dazzling  as  the  sun, 
yet  with  lines  of  blood,  and  many  a  deep  intestine  diffi 
culty,  and  hum%n  aggregate  of  cankerous  imperfection, 
— saying,  Lo !  the  roads,  the  only  plans  of  development, 

*  THE  LABOH  QUESTION. — The  immense  problem  of  the  rela 
tion,  adjustment,  conflict,  between  Labor  and  its  status  and  pay, 
on  the  one  side,  and  the  Capital  of  employers  on  the  other  side — 
looming  up  over  These  States  like  an  ominous,  limitless,  murky 
cloud,  perhaps  before  long  to  overshadow  us  all ; — the  many  thou 
sands  of  decent  working-people,  through  the  cities  and  elsewhere, 
trying  to  keep  up  a  .good  appearance,  but  living  by  daily  toil, 
from  hand  to  mouth,  with  nothing  ahead,  and  no  owned  homes — 
the  increasing  aggregation  of  capital  in  the  hands  of  a  few — the 
chaotic  confusion  of  labor  in  the  Southern  States,  consequent  on 
the  abrogation  of  slavery — the  Asiatic  immigration  on  our  Pacific 
side — the  advent  of  new  machinery,  dispensing  more  and  more 
with  hand-work — the  growing,  alarming  spectacle  of  countless 
squads  of  vagabond  children,  roaming  everywhere  the  streets  and 
wharves  of  the  great  cities,  getting  trained  for  thievery  and  pros 
titution — the  hideousness  and  squalor  of  certain  quarters  of  the 
cities — the  advent  of  late  years,  and  increasing  frequency,  of  these 
pompous,  nauseous,  outside  shows  of  vulgar  wealth — (What  a 
chance  for  a  new  Juvenal !) — wealth  acquired  perhaps  by  some 
quack,  some  measureless  financial  rogue,  triply  brazen  in  impu 
dence,  only  shielding  himself  by  his  money  from  a  shaved  head, 
a  striped  dress,  and  a  felon's  cell ; — and  then,  below  all,  the  plausi 
ble,  sugar-coated,  but  abnormal  and  sooner  or  later  inevitably 
ruinous  delusion  and  loss,  of  our  system  of  inflated  paper-money 
currency,  (cause  of  all  conceivable  swindles,  false  standards  of 
value,  and  principal  breeder  and  bottom  of  those  enormous  for 
tunes  for  the  few,  and  of  poverty  for  the  million) — with  that  other 
plausible  and  sugar-coated  delusion,  the  theory  and  practice  of  a 
protective  tariff,  still  clung  to  by  many  ;— such,  with  plenty  more, 
stretching  themselves  through  many  a  long  year,  for  solution, 
stand  as  huge  impedimenta  of  America's  progress. 


72  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

long,  and  varied  with  all  terrible  balks  and  ebullitions. 
You  said  in  your  soul,  I  will  be  empire  of  empires,  over 
shadowing  all  else,  past  and  present,  putting  the  his 
tory  of  old-world  dynasties,  conquests,  behind  me,  as 
of  no  account — making  a  new  history,  the  history  of 
Democracy,  making  old  history  a  dwarf — I  alono  in 
augurating  largeness,  culminating  Time.  If  these,  O 
lands  of  America,  are  indeed  the  prizes,  the  determina 
tions  of  your  Soul,  be  it  so.  But  behold  the  cost,  and 
already  specimens  of  the  cost.  Behold,  the  anguish  of 
suspense,  existence  itself  wavering  in  the  balance,  un 
certain  whether  to  rise  or  fall ;  already,  close  behind 
you  or  around  you,  thick  winrows  of  corpses  on  battle 
fields,  countless  maimed  and  sick  in  hospitals,  treachery 
among  Generals,  folly  in  the  Executive  and  Legislative 
departments,  schemers,  thieves  everywhere — cant,  cre 
dulity,  make-believe  everywhere.  Thought  you  great 
ness  was  to  ripen  for  you,  like  a  pear?  If  you  would 
have  greatness,  know  that  you  must  conquer  it  through 
ages,  centuries — must  pay  for  it  with  a  proportionate 
price  For  you  too,  as  for  all  lands,  the  struggle,  the 
traitor,  the  wily  person  in  office,  scrofulous  wealth,  the 
surfeit  of  prosperity,  the  demoiiism  of  greed,  the  hell 
oi  passion,  the  decay  of  faith,  the  long  postponement, 
the  fossil-like  lethargy,  the  ceaseless  need  of  revolu 
tions,  prophets,  thunderstorms,  deaths,  births,  new  pro 
jections  and  invigorations  of  ideas  and  men. 

Yet  I  have  dreamed,  merged  in  that  hidden-tangled 
problem  of  our  fate,  whose  long  unraveling  stretches 
mysteriously  through  time — dreamed  out,  portrayed, 
hinted  already — a  little  or  a  larger  Band — a  band  of 
brave  and  true,  unprecedented  yet — armed  and  equipt 
at  every  point — the  members  separated,  it  may  be,  by 
different  dates  and  States,  or  south,  or  north,  or  east, 
or  west — Pacific  or  Atlantic — a  year,  a  century  here, 
and  other  centuries  there — but  always  one,  compact  in 
Soul,  conscience-conserving,  God-inculcating,  inspired 
achievers,  not  only  in  Literature,  the  greatest  art,  but 
achievers  in  all  art — a  new,  undying  order,  dynasty, 
from  age  to  age  transmitted — a  band,  a  class,  at  least 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  73 

as  fit  to  cope  witli  current  years,  our  dangers,  needs,  as 
those  who,  for  their  times,  so  long,  so  well,  in  armor 
or  in  cowl,  upheld,  and  made  illustrious,  the  Feudal, 
priestly  world.  To  offset  Chivalry,  indeed,  those  van 
ished  countless  knights,  and  the  old  altars,  abbeys,  all 
their  priests,  ages  and  strings  of  ages,  a  knightlier  and 
more  sacred  cause  to-day  demands,  and  shall  supply,  in 
a  New  World,  to  larger,  grander  work,  more  than  the 
counterpart  and  tally  of  them. 

Arrived  now,  definitely,  at  an  apex  for  These  Vistas, 
I  confess  that  the  promulgation  and  belief  in  such  a 
class  or  institution — a  new  and  greater  Literatus  Order 
— its  possibility,  (nay  certainty,)  underlies  these  entire 
speculations — and  that  the  rest,  the  other  parts,  as 
superstructures,  are  all  founded  upon  it.  It  really 
seems  to  me  the  condition,  not  only  of  our  future  na 
tional  development,  but  of  our  perpetuation.  In  the 
highly  artificial  and  materialistic  bases  of  modern  civili 
zation,  with  the  corresponding  arrangements  and 
methods  of  living,  .the  force-infusion  of  intellect  alone, 
the  depraving  influences  of  riches  just  as  much  as  pov 
erty,  the  absence  of  all  high  ideals  in  character — with 
the  long  series  of  tendencies,  shapings,  which  few  are 
strong  enough  to  resist,  and  which  now  seem,  with 
steam-engine  speed,  to  be  everywhere  turning  out  the 
generations  of  humanity  like  uniform  iron  castings — all 
of  which,  as  compared  with  the  Feudal  ages,  we  can 
yet  do  nothing  better  than  accept,  make  the  best  of, 
and  even  welcome,  upon  the  whole,  for  their  oceanic 
practical  grandeur,  and  their  restless  wholesale  knead 
ing  of  the  masses — I  say  of  all  this  tremendous  and 
dominant  play  of  solely  materialistic  bearings  upon 
current  life  in  the  United  States,  with  the  results  as 
already  seen,  accumulating,  and  reaching  far  into  the 
future,  that  they  must  either  be  confronted  and  met  by 
at  least  an  equally  subtle  and  tremendous  force-infusion 
for  purposes  of  Spiritualization,  for  the  pure  conscience, 
fcr  genuine  esthetics,  and  for  absolute  and  primal  Man- 
lii^ess  and  Womanliness — or  else  our  modern  civiliza 
tion,  with  all  its  improvements,  is  in  vain,  and  we  are 
4 


74  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

on  the  road  to  a  destiny,  a  status,  equivalent,  in  this 
real  world,  to  that  of  the  fabled  damned. 

— To  furnish,  therefore,  something  like  escape  and 
foil  and  remedy — to  restrain,  with  gentle  but  sufficient 
hand,  the  terrors  of  materialistic,  intellectual,  and  demo 
cratic  civilization — to  ascend  to  more  ethereal,  yet  just 
as  real,  atmospheres — to  invoke  and  set  forth  ineffable 
portraits  of  Personal  Perfection,  (the  true,  final  aim  of 
all,)  I  say  my  eyes  are  fain  to  behold,  though  with 
straining  sight — and  my  spirit  to  prophecy — far  down 
the  vistas  of  These  States,  that  Order,  Class,  superber, 
far  more  efficient  than  any  hitherto,  arising.  I  say  we 
must  enlarge  and  entirely  recast  the  theory  of  noble 
authorship,  and  conceive  and  put  up  as  our  model,  a 
Literatus — groups,  series  of  Literatuses— not  only  con 
sistent  with  modern  science,  practical,  political,  full  of 
the  arts,  of  highest  erudition — not  only  possessed  by, 
and  possessors  of,  Democracy  even — but  with  the  equal 
of  the  burning  fire  and  extasy  of  Conscience,  which  have 
brought  down  to  us,  over  and  through  the  centuries, 
that  chain  of  old  unparalleled  Judeaii  prophets,  with 
their  flashes  of  power,  wisdom,  and  poetic  beauty,  law 
less  as  lightning,  indefinite — yet  power,  wisdom,  beauty, 
above  all  mere  art,  and  surely,  in  some  respects,  above 
all  else  we  know  of  mere  literature. 

Prospecting  thus  the  coming  unsped  clays,  and  that 
new  Order  in  them — marking  the  endless  train  of  exer 
cise,  development,  unwind,  in  Nation  as  in  man,  wrhich 
life  is  for — we  now  proceed  to  note,  as  on  the  hopeful 
terraces  or  platforms  of  our  history,  to  be  enacted,  not 
only  amid  peaceful  growth,  but  amid  all  perturbations, 
and  after  not  a  few  departures,  filling  the  vistas  -then, 
certain  most  coveted,  stately  arrivals. 

— A  few  years,  and  there  will  be  an  appropriate  na 
tive  grand  Opera,  the  lusty  and  wide-lipp'd  offspring  of 
Italian  methods.  Yet  it  will  be  no  mere  imitation,  nor 
follow  precedents,  any  more  than  Nature  follows  prece 
dents.  Vast  oval  halls  will  be  constructed,  on  acoustic 
principles,  in  cities,  where  companies  of  musicians  will 
perform  lyrical  pieces,  born  to  the  people  of  These 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  75 

States  ;  and  the  people  will  make  perfect  music  a  part 
.of  tlieir  live?.  Every  phase,  every  trade  will  have  its 
songs,  beautifying  those  trades.  Men  on  the  land  will 
have  theirs,  and  men  on  the  water  theirs.  Who  now  is 
ready  to  begin  that  work  for  America,  of  composing 
music  fit  for  us — songs,  choruses,  symphonies,  operas, 
oratorios,  fully  identified  with  the  body  and  soul  of  The 
States  ?  music  complete  in  all  its  appointments,  but  in 
some  fresh,  courageous,  melodious,  undeniable  styles — 
as  all  that  is  ever  to  permanently  satisfy  us  must  be. 
The  composers  to  make  such  music  are  to  learn  every 
thing  that  can  be  possibly  learned  in  the  schools  and 
traditions  of  their  art,  and  then  calmly  dismiss  all  tradi 
tions  from  them. 

Also,  a  great  breed  of  orators  will  one  day  spread 
over  The  United  States,  and  be  continued.  Blessed  are 
the  people  where,  (the  nation's  Unity  and  Identity  prc- 
S3rved  at  all  hazards,)  strong  emergencies,  throes,  occur. 
Strong  emergencies  will  continually  occur  in  America, 
and  will  be  provided  for.  Such  orators  are  wanted  as 
have  never  yet  been  heard  upon  the  earth.  What  speci 
men  have  we  had  where  even  the  physical  capacities  of 
the  voice  have  been  fully  accomplished  ?  I  think  there 
would  be  in  the  human  voice,  thoroughly  practised  and 
brought  out,  more  seductive  pathos  than  in  any  organ 
or  any  orchestra  of  stringed  instruments,  and  a  ring 
more  impressive  than  that  of  artillery. 

Also,  in  a  few  years,  there  will  be,  in  the  cities  of 
These  States,  immense  Museums,  with  suites  of  halls, 
containing  samples  and  illustrations  from  all  the  places 
and  peoples  of  the  earth,  old  and  new.  In  these  halls, 
in  the  presence  of  these  illustrations,  the  noblest  savans 
will  deliver  lectures  to  thousands  of  young  men  and 
women,  on  history,  natural  history,  the  sciences,  &c. 
History  itself  will  get  released  from  being  that  false 
and  distant  thing,  that  fetish  it  has  been.  It  will  be 
come  a  friend,  a  venerable  teacher,  a  live  being,  with 
hands,  voice,  presence.  It  will  be  disgraceful  to  a 
young  person  not  to  know  chronology,  geography, 
poems,  heroes,  deeds,  and  all  the  former  nations,  and 


76  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

present  ones  also — and  it  will  be  disgraceful  in  a  teacher 
to  teacli  any  less  or  more  than  he  believes. 

— We  see,  fore-indicated,  amid  these  prospects  and 
hopes,  new  law-forces  of  spoken  and  written  language 
— not  merely  the  pedagogue-forms,  correct,  regular, 
familiar  with  precedents,  made  for  matters  of  outside 
propriety,  fine  words,  thoughts  definitely  told  out — but 
a  language  fanned  by  the  breath  of  Nature,  which  leaps 
overhead,  cares  mostly  for  impetus  and  effects,  and  for 
what  it  plants  and  invigorates  to  grow — tallies  life  and 
character,  and  seldomer  tells  a  thing  than  suggests  or 
necessitates  it.  In  fact,  a  new  theory  of  literary  compo 
sition  for  imaginative  works  of  the  very  first  class,  and 
especially  for  highest  poems,  is  the  sole  course  open  to 
These  States. 

Books  are  to  be  called  for,  and  supplied,  on  the  as 
sumption  that  the  process  of  reading  is  not  a  half-sleep, 
but,  in  highest  sense,  an  exercise,  a  oymnast's  struggle  ; 
that  the  reader  is  to  do  something  for  himself,  must  bo 
on  the  alert,  must  himself  or  herself  construct  indeed 
the  poem,  argument,  history,  metaphysical  essay — tho 
text  furnishing  the  hints,  the  clue,  the  start  or  frame 
work.  Not  the  book  needs  so  much  to  be  the  complete 
thing,  but  the  reader  of  the  book  does.  That  were  to 
make  a  nation  of  supple  and  athletic  minds,  well- 
trained,  intuitive,  used  to  depend  on  themselves,  and 
not  on  a  few  coteries  of  writers. 

— Investigating  here,  we  see,  not  that  it  is  a  little 
thing  we  have,  in  having  the  bequeathed  libraries, 
countless  shelves  of  volumes,  records,  &c.  ;  yet  how 
serious  the  danger,  depending  entirely  on  them,  of  the 
bloodless  vein,  the  nerveless  arm,  the  false  application, 
at  second  or  third  hand.  After  all,  we  see  Life,  not 
bred,  (at  least  in  its  more  modern  and  essential  parts,) 
in  those  great  old  Libraries,  nor  America  nor  Democ 
racy  favored  nor  applauded  there.  We  see  that  the 
real  interest  of  this  People  of  ours  in  the  Theology, 
History,  Poetry,  Politics,  and  Personal  Models  of  the 
past,  (of  British  islands,  for  instance,  and  indeed  all 
the  past,)  is  not  necessarily  to  mould  ourselves  or  our 
literature  upon  them,  but  to  attain  fuller,  more  definite 


DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS.  77 

comparisons,  warnings,  and  the  insight  to  ourselves, 
our  own  present,  and  our  own  far  grander,  different, 
future  history,  Keligion,  social  customs,  &c. 

— We  see  that  almost  everything  that  has  been 
written,  sung,  or  stated,  of  old,  with  reference  to  hu 
manity  under  the  Feudal  and  Oriental  institutes,  reli 
gions,  and  for  other  lands,  needs  to  be  re-written,  re- 
sung,  re-stated,  in  terms  consistent  with  the  institution 
of  These  States,  and  to  come  in  range  and  obedient 
uniformity  with  them. 

We  see,  as  in  the  universes  of  the  material  Kosmcs, 
after  meteorological,  vegetable,  and  animal  cycles,  man 
at  last  arises,  born  through  them,  to  prove  them,  con 
centrate  them,  to  turn  upon  them  with  wonder  and 
love — to  command  them,  adorn  them,  and  carry  them 
upward  into  superior  realms — so  out  of  the  series  of 
the  preceding  social  and  political  universes,  now  arise 
These  States — their  main  purport  being  not  in  the  new 
ness  and  importance  of  their  politics  or  inventions,  but 
in  new,  grander,  more  advanced  Religions,  Literatures, 
and  Art. 

We  see  that  while  many  were  supposing  things  estab 
lished  and  completed,  really  the  grandest  things  always 
remain  ;  and  discover  that  the  work  of  the  New  World 
is  not  ended,  but  only  fairly  begun. 

We  see  our  land,  America,  her  Literature,  Esthetics, 
&c.,  as,  substantially,  the  getting  in  form,  or  effusement 
and  statement,  of  deepest  basic  elements  and  loftiest 
final  meanings,  of  History  and  Man — and  the  portrayal, 
(under  the  eternal  laws  and  conditions  of  beauty,)  of 
our  own  physiognomy,  the  subjective  tie  and  expression 
of  the  objective,  as  from,  our  own  combination,  continu 
ation  and  points  of  view — and  the  deposit  and  record  of 
the  national  mentality,  character,  appeals,  heroism, 
wars,  and  even  liberties — where  these,  and  all,  culmi 
nate  in  native  formulation,  to  be  perpetuated  ; — and 
not  having  which  native,  first-class  formulation,  she 
will  flounder  about,  and  her  other,  however  imposing, 
eminent  greatness,  prove  merely  a  passing  gleam  ;  but 
truly  having  which,  she  will  understand  herself,  live 
nobly,  nobly  contribute,  emanate,  and,  swinging,  poised 


78  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

safely  on  herself,  illumined  and  illuming,  become  a  full- 
formed  world,  and  divine  Mother  not  only  of  material 
but  spiritual  worlds,  in  ceaseless  succession  through 
Time. 

Finally,  we  have  to  admit,  we  see,  even  to-day,  and 
in  all  these  things,  the  born  Democratic  taste  and  will 
of  The  United  States,  regardless  of  precedent,  or  of  any 
authority  but  their  own,  beginning  to  arrive,  seeking 
place — which,  in  due  time,  they  will  fully  occupy.  At 
first,  of  course,  under  current  prevalences  of  theology, 
conventions,  criticism,  &c.,  all  appears  impracticable — 
takes  chances  to  be  denied  and  misunderstood.  There 
with,  of  course,  murmurers,  puzzled  persons,  supercil 
ious  inquirers,  (with  a  mighty  stir  and  noise  among 
these  windy  little  gentlemen  that  swarm  in  literature, 
in  the  magazines.)  But  America,  advancing  steadily, 
evil  as  well  as  good,  penetrating  deep,  without  one 
thought  of  retraction,  ascending,  expanding,  keeps  her 
course,  hundreds,  thousands  of  years. 


GENEEAL    NOTES. 


"  SOCIETY." — I  have  myself  little  or  no  hope  from  what  is 
technically  called  "  Society  "  in  our  American  cities.  New  York, 
of  which  place  I  have  spoken  so  sharply,  still  promises  something, 
in  time,  out  of  its  tremendous  and  varied  materials,  with  a  certain 
superiority  of  intuitions,  and  the  advantage  of  constant  agitation, 
and  ever  new  and  rapid  dealings  of  the  cards.  Of  Boston,  with 
its  circles  of  social  mummies,  swathed  in  cerements  harder  than 
brass— its  bloodless  religion,  (Unitarianism,)  its  complacent  vanity 
of  scientism  and  literature,  lots  of  grammatical  correctness,  mere 
knowledge,  (always  wearisome,  in  itself )— its  zealous  abstractions, 
ghosts  of  reforms — I  should  say,  (ever  admitting  its  business 
powers,  its  sharp,  almost  demoniac,  intellect,  and  no  lack,  in  its 
own  way,  of  courage  and  generosity) — there  is,  at  present,  little  of 
cheering,  satisfying  sign.  In  the  West,  California,  &c.,  "  society  " 
is  yet  unformed,  peurile,  seemingly  unconscious  of  anything  above 
a  driving  business,  or  to  liberally  spend  the  money  made  by  it  in 
the  usual  rounds  and  shows. 

Then  there  is,  to  the  humorous  observer  of  American  attempts 
at  fashion,  according  to  the  models  of  foreign  courts  and  saloons, 
quite  a  comic  side — particularly  visible  at  Washington  City, — a 
sort  of  high  life  below  stairs  business.  As  if  any  farce  could  be 
funnier,  for  instance,  than  the  scenes  of  the  crowds,  winter  nights, 
meandering  around  our  Presidents  and  their  wives,  Cabinet 
officers,  western  or  other  Senators,  Representatives,  &c.;  born  of 
good  laboring,  mechanic,  or  farmer  stock  and  antecedents,  attempt 
ing  those  full-dress  receptions,  finesse  of  parlors,  foreign  ceremo 
nies,  etiquettes,  &c. 

Indeed,  considered  with  any  sense  of  propriety,  or  any  sense  at 
all,  the  whole  of  this  illy-played  fashionable  play  and  display, 
with  their  absorption  of  the  best  part  of  our  wealthier  citizens' 
time,  money,  energies,  &c.,  is  ridiculously  out  of  place  in  the 
United  States.  As  if  our  proper  man  and  woman,  (far,  far  greater 
words  than  "  gentleman  "  and  "  lady/')  could  still  fail  to  see,  and 
presently  achieve,  not  this  spectral  business,  but  something  truly 
noble,  active,  sane,  American — by  modes,  perfections  of  character, 
manners,  costumes,  social  relations,  &c.,  adjusted  to  standards,  far, 
far  different  from  those ! 


80  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

— Eminent  and  liberal  foreigners,  British  or  continental,  must 
at  times  have  their  faith  fearfully  tried  by  what  they  see  of  our 
New  World  personalities.  The  shallowest  and  least  American 
persons  seem  surest  to  push  abroad  and  call  without  fail  on  well- 
known  foreigners,  who  are  doubtless  affected  with  indescribable 
qualms  by  these  queer  ones.  Then,  more  than  half  of  our  authors 
and  writers  evidently  think  it  a  great  thing  to  be  "  aristocratic," 
and  sneer  at  progress,  democracy,  revolution,  &c.  If  some  inter 
national  literary  Snobs'  Gallery  were  established,  it  is  certain  that 
America  could  contribute  at  least  her  full  share  of  the  portraits, 
and  some  very  distinguished  ones.  Observe  that  the  most  impu 
dent  slanders,  low  insults,  &c.,  on  the  great  revolutionary  authors, 
leaders,  poets,  &c.,  of  Europe,  have  their  origin  and  main  circula 
tion  in  certain  circles  here.  The  treatment  of  Victor  Hugo  living, 
and  Byron  dead,  are  samples.  Both  deserving  so  well  of  America ; 
and  both  persistently  attempted  to  be  soiled  here  by  unclean  birds, 
male  and  female. 

— Meanwhile,  I  must  still  offset  the  like  of  the  foregoing,  and 
all  it  infers,  by  the  recognition  of  the  fact,  that  while  the  surfaces 
of  current  society  here  show  so  much  that  is  dismal,  noisome  and 
vapory,  there  are,  beyond  question,  inexhaustible  supplies,  as  of 
true  gold  ore,  in  the  mines  of  America's  general  humanity.  Lot 
us,  not  ignoring  the  dross,  give  fit  stress  to  these  precious,  im 
mortal  values  also.  Let  it  be  distinctly  admitted,  that — whatever 
may  be  said  of  our  fashionable  society,  and  of  any  foul  fractions 
and  episodes — only  here  in  America,  out  of  the  long  history,  and 
manifold  presentations  of  the  ages,  has  at  last  arisen,  and  now 
stands,  what  never  before  took  positive  form  and  sway,  THE 
PEOPLE — and  that,  viewed  en-masse,  and  while  fully  acknowl 
edging  deficiencies,  dangers,  faults,  this  People,  inchoate,  latent, 
not  yet  come  to  majority,  nor  to  its  own  religious,  literary  or 
esthetic  expression,  yet  affords,  to-day,  an  exultant  justification  of 
all  the  faith,  all  the  hopes  and  prayers  and  prophecies  of  good 
men  through  the  past — the  stablest,  solidest-based  government 
of  the  world — the  most  assured  in  a  future — the  beaming  Pharos 
to  whose  perennial  light  all  earnest  eyes,  the  world  over,  are 
tending — And  that  already,  in  and  from  it,  the  Democratic  prin 
ciple,  having  been  mortally  tried  by  severest  tests,  fatalities,  of 
war  and  peace,  now  issues  from  the  trial,  unharmed,  trebly-in 
vigorated,  perhaps  to  commence  forthwith  its  finally  triumphant 
march  around  the  globe. 

BRITISH  LITERATURE. — To  avoid  mistake,  I  would  say  that  I 
not  only  commend  the  study  of  this  literature,  but  wish  our 
sources  of  supply  and  comparison  vastly  enlarged.  American 
students  may  well  derive  from  all  former  lands — from  forenoon 
Greece  and  Rome,  down  to  the  perturbed  medieval  times,  the 
Crusades,  and  so  to  Italy,  the  German  intellect — all  the  older  lit 
eratures,  and  all  the  newer  ones — from  witty  and  warlike  France, 
and  markedly,  and  in  many  ways,  and  at  many  different  periods, 


GENERAL  NOTES.  81 

from  the  enterprise  and  soul  of  the  great  Spanish  race— bearing 
ourselves  always  courteous,  always  deferential,  indebted  beyond 
measure  to  the  mother-world,  to  all  its  nations  dead,  as  all  its  na 
tions  living — the  offspring,  this  America  of  ours,  the  Daughter, 
not  by  any  means  of  the  British  isles  exclusively,  but  of  the  Con 
tinent,  and  all  continents.  Indeed,  it  is  time  we  should  realize 
and  fully  fructify  those  germs  we  also  hold  from  Italy,  France, 
Spain,  especially  in  the  best  imaginative  productions  of  those 
lands,  which  are,  in  many  ways,  loftier  and  subtler  than  the  Eng 
lish,  or  British,  and  indispensable  to  complete  our  service,  propor 
tions,  education,  reminiscences,  &c The  British  element  These 

States  hold,  and  have  always  held,  enormously  beyond  its  fit  pro 
portions.  I  have  already  spoken  of  Shakespeare.  He  seems  to 
me  of  astral  genius,  first  class,  entirely  fit  for  feudalism.  His 
contributions,  especially  to  the  literature  of  the  passions,  are  im 
mense,  forever  dear  to  humanity — and  his  name  is  always  to  be 
reverenced  in  America.  But  there  is  much  in  him  that  is  offen 
sive  to  Democracy.  He  is  not  only  the  tally  of  Feudalism,  but  I 
should  say  Shakespeare  is  incarnated,  uncompromising  Feudal 
ism,  in  literature.  Then  one  seems  to  detect  something  in  him — 
I  hardly  know  how  to  describe  it — even  amid  the  dazzle  of  his 
genius;  and,  in  inferior  manifestations,  it  is  found  in  nearly  all 
leading  British  authors.  (Perhaps  we  will  have  to  import  the 
words  Snob,  Snobbish,  &c.,  after  all.)  While  of  the  great  poems 
of  Asian  antiquity,  the  Indian  epics,  the  Book  of  Job,  the  Ionian 
Iliad,  the  unsurpassedly  simple,  loving,  perfect  idyls  of  the  Jife 
and  death  of  Christ,  in  the  New  Testament,  (indeed  Homer  and 
the  Biblical  utterances  intertwine  familiarly  with  us,  in  the  main,) 
and  along  down,  of  most  of  the  characteristic  imaginative  or  ro 
mantic  relics  of  the  continent,  as  the  Cid,  Cervantes  Don  Quixote, 
&c.,  I  should  say  they  substantially  adjust  themselves  to  us,  and, 
far  off  as  they  are,  accord  curiously  with  our  bed  and  board,  to 
day,  in  1870,  in  Brooklyn,  Washington,  Canada,  Ohio,  Texas, 
California — and  with  our  notions,  both  of  seriousness  and  of  fun, 
and  our  standards  of  heroism,  manliness,  and  even  the  Democratic 
requirements — those  requirements  are  not  only  not  fulfilled  in  the 
Shakesperean  productions,  but  are  insulted  on  every  page. 

I  add  that — while  England  is  among  the  greatest  of  lands  in 
political  freedom,  or  the  idea  of  it,  and  in  stalwart  personal  char 
acter,  &c. — the  spirit  of  English  literature  is  not  great,  at  least  is 
not  greatest — and  its  products  are  no  models  for  us.  With  the 
exception  of  Shakespeare,  there  is  no  first-class  genius,  or  ap 
proaching  to  first-class,  in  that  literature — which,  with  a  truly 
vast  amount  of  value,  and  of  artificial  beauty,  (largely  from  the 
classics,)  is  almost  always  material,  sensual,  not  spiritual — almost 
always  congests,  makes  plethoric,  not  frees,  expands,  dilates — is 
cold,  anti-Democratic,  loves  to  be  sluggish  and  stately,  and  shows 
much  of  that  characteristic  of  vulgar  persons,  the  dread  of  saying 
or  doing  something  not  at  all  improper  in  itself,  but  unconven 
tional,  and  that  may  be  laughed  at.  In  its  best,  the  sombre  per- 


82  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

vades  it; — it  is  moody,  melancholy,  and,  to  give  it  its  due,  ox- 
presses,  in  characters  and  plots,  those  qualities,  in  an  unrivaled 
manner.  Yet  not  as  the  black  thunderstorms,  and  in  great  nor 
mal,  crashing  passions,  as  of  the  Greek  dramatists — clearing  the 
air,  refreshing  afterward,  bracing  with  power ;  but  as  in  Hamlet, 
moping,  sick,  uncertain,  and  leaving  ever  after  a  secret  taste  for 

the  blues,  the  morbid  fascination,  the  luxury  of  wo (I  cannot 

dismiss  English,  or  British  imaginative  literature  without  the 
cheerful  name  of  Walter  Scott.  In  my  opinion  he  deserves  to 
stand  next  to  Shakespeare.  Both  are,  in  their  best  and  absolute 
quality,  continental,  not  British — both  teeming,  luxuriant,  true  to 
their  lands  and  origin,  namely  feudality,  yet  ascending  into  uni- 
vcrsalism.  Then,  I  should  say,  both  deserve  to  be  finally  consid 
ered  and  construed  as  shining  suns,  whom  it  were  ungracious  to 
pick  spots  upon.) 

I  strongly  recommend  all  the  young  men  and  young  women  of 
tb.3  United  States  to  whom  it  may  be  eligible,  to  overhaul  the 
well-freighted  fleets,  the  literatures  of  Italy,  Spain,  France,  Ger 
many,  so  full  of  those  elements  of  freedom,  self  possession,  gay- 
hcartedness,  subtlety,  dilation,  needed  in  preparations  for  the 
future  of  The  States.  I  only  wish  we  could  have  really  good 
translations.  I  rejoice  at  the  feeling  for  Oriental  researches  and 
poetry,  and  hope  it  will  go  on. 

THE  LATE  WAK.— The  Secession  War  in  the  United  States 
appears  to  me  as  the  last  great  material  and  military  outcropping 
of  the  Feudal  spirit,  in  our  New  World  history,  society,  &c. 
Though  it  was  not  certain,  hardly  probable,  that  the  effort  for 
founding  a  Slave-Holding  power,  by  breaking  up  the  Union, 
should  be  successful,  it  was  urged  on  by  indomitable  passion, 
pride  and  will.  The  signal  downfall  of  this  effort,  the  abolition 
of  Slavery,  and  the  extirpation  of  the  Slaveholding  Class,  (cut 
out  and  thrown  away  like  a  tumor  by  surgical  operation,)  makes 
incomparably  the  longest  advance  for  Radical  Democracy,  utterly 
removing  its  only  really  dangerous  impediment,  and  insuring  its 
progress  in  the  United  States — and  thence,  of  course,  over  tho 

world (Our  immediate  years  witness  the  solution  of  three  vast, 

life-threatening  calculi,  in  different  parts  of  the  world — the  removal 
of  serfdom  in  Russia,  slavery  in  the  United  States,  and  of  the 
meanest  of  Imperialisms  in  France.) 

Of  the  Secession  War  itself,  we  know,  in  the  ostcnt,  what  has 
been  done.  The  numbers  of  the  dead  and  wounded  can  be  told, 
or  approximated,  the  debt  posted  and  put  on  record,  the  material 
events  narrated,  &c.  Meantime,  the  war  being  over,  elections  go 
on,  laws  are  passed,  political  parties  struggle,  issue  their  plat 
forms,  &c.,  just  the  same  as  before.  But  immensest  results  of  tho 
War — not  only  in  Politics,  but  in  Literature,  Poems,  and  Sociol 
ogy — are  doubtless  waiting  yet  unformed,  in  the  future.  How 
long  they  will  wait  I  cannot  tell.  The  pageant  of  History's 
retrospect  shows  us,  ages  since,  all  Europe  marching  on  the  Cru- 


GENERAL  NOTES.  83 

sades,  those  wondrous  armed  uprisings  of  the  People,  stirred  by 
a  mere  idea,  to  grandest  attempt — and,  when  once  baffled  in  it, 
returning,  at  intervals,  twice,  thrice,  and  again.  An  unsurpassed 
series  of  revolutionary  events,  influences.  Yet  it  took  over  two 
hundred  years  for  the  seeds  of  the  Crusades  to  germinate  before 
beginning  even  to  sprout.  Two  hundred  years  they  lay,  sleeping, 
not  dead,  but  dormant  in  the  ground.  Then,  ont  of  them,  un 
erringly,  arts,  travel,  navigation,  politics,  literature,  freedom,  in 
ventions,  the  spirit  of  adventure,  inquiry,  all  arose,  grew,  and 
steadily  sped  on  to  what  we  see  at  present.  Far  back  there,  that 
huge  agitation-struggle  of  the  Crusades,  stands,  as  undoubtedly 
the  embryo,  the  start,  of  the  high  preeminence  of  experiment, 
civilization  and  enterprise  which  the  European  nations  have  sjiice 
sustained,  and  of  which  These  States  are  the  heirs, 

GENERAL  SUFFRAGE,  ELECTIONS,  &c. — It  still  remains  doubtful 
to  me  whether  these  will  ever  secure,  officially,  the  best  wit  and 
capacity — whether,  through  thorn,  the  first-class  genius  of  America 
will  ever  personally  appear  in  the  high  political  stations,  the  Presi 
dency,  Congress,  the  leading  State  offices,  &c.  Those  offices,  or 
the  candidacy  for  them,  arranged,  won,  by  caucusing,  money,  the 
favoritism  or  pecuniary  interest  of  rings,  the  superior  manipula 
tion  of  the  ins  over  the  outs,  or  the  outs  over  the  ins,  are,  indeed, 
at  best,  the  mere  business  agencies  of  the  people,  are  useful  as 
formulating,  neither  the  best  and  highest,  but  the  average  of  the 
public  judgment,  sense,  justice,  (or  sometimes  want  of  judgment, 
sense,  justice.)  We  elect  Presidents,  Congressmen,  &c.,  not  so 
much  to  have  them  consider  and  decide  for  us,  but  as  surest  prac 
tical  means  of  expressing  the  will  of  majorities  on  mooted  ques 
tions,  measures,  &c. 

As  to  general  suffrage,  after  all,  since  we  have  gone  so  far,  the 
more  general  it  is,  the  better.  I  favor  the  widest  opening  of  the 
doors.  Let  the  ventilation  and  area  be  wide  enough,  and  all  is 
safe.  We  can  never  have  a  born  penitentiary-bird,  or  panel-thief, 
or  lowest  gambling-hell  or  groggery  keeper,  for  President — though 
such  may  not  only  emulate,  but  get,  high  offices  from  localities — 
even  from  the  proud  and  wealthy  city  of  New  York. 

STATE  RIGHTS. — Freedom,  (under  the  universal  laws,)  and  the 
fair  and  uncramped  play  of  Individuality,  can  only  be  had  at  all 
through  strong-knit  cohesion,  identity.  There  are,  who,  talking 
of  the  rights  of  The  States,  as  in  separatism  and  independence, 
condemn  a  rigid  nationality,  centrality.  But  to  my  mind,  the 
freedom,  as  the  existence  at  all,  of  The  States,  pro-necessitates 
such  a  Nationality,  an  imperial  Union.  Thus,  it  is  to  serve  sepa 
ratism  that  we  favor  generalization,  consolidation.  It  is  to  give, 
under  the  compaction  of  potent  general  law,  an  independent 
vitality  and  sway  within  their  spheres,  to  The  States  singly, 
(really  just  as  important  a  part  of  our  scheme  as  the  sacred 
Union  itself,)  that  we  insist  on  the  preservation  of  our  Nation- 


84  DEMOCRATIC  VISTAS. 

ality  forever,  and  at  all  hazards.  I  say  neither  States,  nor  any 
thing  like  State  Rights,  could  permanently  exist  on  any  other 
terms. 

LATEST  PROM  EUROPE. — As  I  send  my  last  pages  to  press, 
(Sept.  19,  1870,)  the  ocean-cable,  continuing  its  daily  budget  of 
Franco-German  war-news — Louis  Napoleon  a  prisoner,  (his  rat- 
cunning  at  an  end) — tli3  conquerors  advanced  on  Paris — the 
French,  assuming  Republican  forms — seeking  to  negotiate  with 
the  King  of  Prussia,  at  the  head  of  his  armies — "  hi 3  Majesty," 
says  the  despatch,  "refuses  to  treat,  011  any  terms,  with  a  govern 
ment  risen  out  of  Democracy." 

Let  us  note  the  words,  and  not  forget  them.  The  official  rela 
tions  of  Our  States,  we  know,  are  with  the  reigning  kings,  queens, 
&c.,  of  the  Old  World.  But  the  only  deep,  vast,  emotional,  real 
affinity  of  America  is  with  the  cause  of  Popular  Government 
there — and  especially  in  France.  0  that  I  could  express,  in  my 
printed  lines,  the  passionate  yearnings,  the  pulses  of  sympathy, 
forever  throbbing  in  the  heart  of  These  States,  for  sake  of  that — 
the  eager  eyes  forever  turned  to  that — watching  it,  struggling, 
appearing  and  disappearing,  often  apparently  gone  under,  yet 
never  to  be  abandoned,  in  Franco,  Italy,  Spain,  Germany,  and  in 
the  British  Islands. 


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